Chapter Text
It’s a rather nice and quiet day, all things considered. Sari and Bumblebee are sprawled on the couch looking at the strangest cartoons on Earth (that subscription her father has got her is doing wonders for their needs! Even if it should help the bots understand what life is like on their planet, but eh, if anyone asks, they’re doing exactly that). Without needing confirmation, Bumblebee presses the button to go to the next episode as soon as the outro starts playing and they get ready for the next.
There are no Decepticon attacks, Prowl isn’t bothering them about going outside and enjoying nature because he’s meditating or whatever, Ratchet is somewhere (probably snoring in his room, but he’ll tear their TV with his magnets before admitting it!) and Optimus is on monitor duty. When the intro starts playing and Bumblebee hums to the song, Sari turns around to take a look at him.
It’s a show to watch him do it alone. They have a handful of monitors connected to their ship in the depths of lake Erie, and when Bumblebee is sent to monitor duty he usually just watches one of the screens that cycle through the cameras of the city. But Prime is completely different: he casts glances at that, sure, but then he’s over somewhere else typing a report, and then he makes sure the scanners are working, and then he turns his head to the radar and he beings his cycle anew.
Out of everyone, he’s obviously the one most focused on his task.
That’s when Bulkhead appears in her side-view, peeking from the corner of the door. He squints a couple of times, magnifying his lenses to focus on Sari and Bumblebee, and then snickers to himself, diving back in the corridor.
It doesn’t exactly bother the young girl (when you live your life along with five giant-sized aliens, you’re bound to encounter something new and weird) so she’s learned to just shrug it off and get back to whatever she was doing.
But it does become a bit concerning when, right in the middle of the episode, Bulkhead comes again, snickers to himself and then disappears. And one more time, right as they hit the next episode.
When it happens a third time, Sari turns around.
“Okay, Bulk, what is it?!”
The green Autobots puts his hands up, like he’s just been caught red-handed robbing a bank. He straightens and puts up his best (well, impression of a) poker face.
He’s still smirking.
“Nothing, nothing.”
Sari may be young, but even she can read when Bulkhead is lying. It’s like he’s not even trying.
“Do you need anything?” She asks a bit venomous, because she doesn’t want to be lied to. Too many adults do that already. At least she can count on her friends to be honest! She gets down from the couch, Bumblebee’s gaze following her, and squares herself right in front of Bulkhead with her hands on her hips. When the big bot doesn’t answer, she leans forward, still somewhat cross. “Can I help you?”
“Hey, calm down Sari.” Bumblebee says, turning on the couch. “Bulkhead is probably just… uh, painting something. He always steals a glance at the reference.”
“How do you know that? It’s supposed to be a surprise!” Bulkhead retorts immediately. Sari’s mood changes drastically at the last word.
“Surprise? Oh? Is it for me??”
“No, it’s not for you!” Bulkhead replies, looking down. “It was supposed to be for Bumblebee.”
“Well, I haven’t seen what you’re working on, have I?” The yellow bots replies, leaning back down on the couch with a satisfied expression. “Your surprise isn’t completely ruined.” He tries to shrug it off, play it cool, although he’s back no more than a second later with a huge grin painted on his face. “Although now I can’t wait to see it!”
“Oh, for Bumblebee…?” Sari murmurs sadly, before getting back on track. This is a friend she’s talking about. It’s not like Bulkhead is making something for the Decepticons (what a silly thought! He’d never do that). She should be happy for him. A thought strikes her.
“Wait, so if it’s for Bee, I can see it?!” She asks in a happy squeal.
“Only if you promise not to say anything!”
“Uh, guys, I’m still here? You might want to take it outside.”
“Right.” Bulkhead says, turning around and heading back. “Don’t get into my room!”
“Fine, fine.” He replies, even if he’s all giddy and jittery.
“I mean it!” Bulkhead shouts from the corridor.
“Yeah, I got that!”
“Alright, come on.” He adds in the end, making his way back to the room he’s called as his own.
As they walk down the gray halls of the abandoned factory, Sari can’t help but ask:
“So? Why are you making a surprise for Bee?”
Bulkhead smirks and giggles like he’s done three times already today, and claps his hands a couple of times with a loud metallic noise.
“It’s going to be Bee’s solenoid soon! I can’t wait to throw him a party!” He looks obviously content sharing this information, but Sari simply rotates her head to the side.
“Bee’s solenoid? What’s that?”
Bulkhead stops dead in his tracks, scratching his head, baffled and confused.
“You don’t know what a solenoid is? But you had one not too long ago!” Sari makes an expression that’s just like her friend’s.
“I did?”
“Yes, we were all there too!” That doesn’t narrow it down a lot. She spends a lot of time with all of them. Well, maybe not Ratchet, but when she ends up following them into a soon-to-be battlefield she’s effectively staying with them. Not to mention how she sees them more often than she does her father by this point.
“Ah, really?”
“You can’t have forgotten that already!” Bulkhead seems to get heated up, but then he calms down. “Or maybe you really did. Uhm, you do remember when we came here, right?” She feels some of her anger bubble up again, and throws her hands into the air.
“I do, but I have no idea what this ‘solenoid’ you’re talking about is!”
“It’s a celebration.” A voice from the shadows answers, and not too long after the sleek form of Prowl steps into the light. “Of a bot spending enough time to see Cybertron make a complete rotation around its main star.”
Sari needs a few seconds to recover from his entrance, but finally she lights up with an idea.
“Ah! So it’s like a birthday! You should have led with that!”
It’s Bulkhead’s turn to look at her quizzically.
“Is that what you call them?”
“You had your birthday on the day you were born right? Your ninth rotation around the Sun.” Prowl comments, nodding. “That is quite remarkable, even if your ‘years’ last a lot less than ours.”
“Oh, so it’s not really his birthday then?” Sari questions, losing a bit of her enthusiasm. This is becoming kinda confusing. “Well, I suppose being on a different planet would make you lose track of time at your place.”
“No, who do you think I am?” Bulkhead pouts, crossing his arms in defiance. “I ran the conversion and it’s tomorrow. It should be from three AM to five PM of the following day, but I think we can work with just tomorrow.”
“Did you account for the fifty years we were into stasis?” Prowl asks.
“Of course! It wouldn’t be his eighth solenoid already otherwise!”
“Eighth?” Sari’s eyes go wide and a gargantuan smile depicts on her face. “You can’t be serious! You mean I’m older than Bumblebee?”
Bulkhead is quick to redirect his attention back to her.
“I mean… technically? But it’s… it’s a bit different.”
“Oh no, I heard enough. I’m not the youngest of the group anymore! Prime can’t tell me a thing about going on a mission if Bumblebee can!”
“I’m afraid Cybetronians and humans age very differently.” Prowl extinguishes her enthusiasm with his words as cold as ice. “You see, one’s eighth solenoid is an important accomplishment: it marks when an individual can be considered mature. Although I still wouldn’t place ‘mature’ and ‘Bumblebee’ in the same sentence.”
“So he’s like, turning eighteen?” Sari glances at Prowl. “Huh. You guys mature pretty fast. But if Bumblebee is ‘mature’ now, maybe you need to rethink your standards.” She sing songs.
“If I had to wait until I was at my eighteenth solenoid to be mature, I wouldn’t even be mature now.” Prowl comments, with the tiniest smile. “And, for the record, Cybetron’s revolutions are a lot longer than yours. They last at least thirty of your so called ‘years’.”
“So Bumblebee is actually…” Sari struggles to count on her fingers, and she has to repeat the calculation a couple of times. “Around two-hundred and forty years? That’s really old!”
“Hey, I’m older than him!” Bulkhead retorts, even if it lacks any bite. “But you see, it is an important achievement. So I wanted to make something nice for him. We probably won’t be able to have a real party, so I figured I’d at least give him a gift.”
“Don’t worry, Bulkhead, I think I can convince Optimus! He must have had a cool eighteenth birthday, right? He’ll understand! And he won’t resist to this face!” To make her point, she gets her hands close to her chest and makes her best puppy-dog eyes impression. She’s quite good at it, she’s acquired a lot of things this way. But Prowl counters her yet again.
“Prime would probably allow this. It’s Ratchet I don’t think we’ll be able to convince.” Sari huffs because, well, he is right. The doc-bot is so old (she can’t even think about how old that would be in Earth years, probably around the thousands or even more! Maybe even five-thousands!) so he probably doesn’t even remember how his eighth solenoid was. He’s going to be a giant buzz kill.
“I know, I thought the same thing. That’s why I wanted to make him a painting he can hang up in his room. But I wanted to get his better side, and I had to keep coming back to check.” Continues Bulkhead.
The green bot’s idea is great, but now that there’s a party on the horizon Sari can’t show up empty handed!
“I’ll make something too!” She decides, turning around to Prowl. “What do you do at this kind of parties?”
“Well, there are a lot of things you can do.” The ninja explains. “But everyone makes it differently. Bumblebee would probably be happy with broadcasting impossibly loud music until Ratchet physically tears the speakers away.”
“But we already do that whenever doc-bot isn’t around!” She whines. “I need something new and exciting… Wait! Prowl, how did you celebrate your eighth bir- er, solenoid?”
“My eighth, huh?” Prowl wonders, putting a hand under his chin. “It wasn’t all that long ago, in the closing moments of the war. I remember I was still a novice in the ninja dojo. I spent the day meditating on the person I wanted to be, who I could become and what strides I would need to make to get there. Many of my mates joined me.” He replies, with a tiny smile appearing. “And helped me think, open my spark, look at my inside mechanisms. It made it easier, and I really enjoyed the time spent with them. I really wasn’t expecting it.”
“Lame.” Sari murmurs, but Prowl’s wince lets her know he heard her crystal clear. And, okay, that wasn’t very nice to say but Bumblebee and Prowl are two very different people. If they organized a meditating session or whatever Bee would be out of the door disguised as a streak of yellow in two seconds flat. That just won’t work! “What did you do instead, Bulk? Any other ideas?”
Bulkhead scratches the back of his head and hums.
“Let’s see… Oh, yeah, I remember. It wasn’t given some grand present like a painting. But my friends surprised me and led me to a cyber-tree, and we started building a beautiful house on top of it! We spent the whole day working on it, hammering nails and securing the walls and by the time night fell we watched Cybetron’s two moons soar the sky together.”
Sari’s eyes go wide, and she looks up to her friend, wondering how two moons could look like. “That sounds great! Let’s do that!”
“But Earth doesn’t have two moons we can look at. Although the one is just as fascinating.” Prowl comments, although Sari isn’t easily swayed from her enthusiasm.
“We can still try! Then we’ll watch the moon rise with Bee!” Bulkhead shrugs.
“It had a few problems back in the day so maybe it isn’t the safest idea. Like, we should have reinforced the floor…”
“Huh? Why?” Asks Sari, curiously. Bulkhead’s shoulders hunch.
“The moment I got in the floor collapsed and all of our work disappeared in smoke. But it was fun making it, even if I had to go back to Autoboot camp before we could fix it.”
The girl walks to the big bot and puts a hand on his foot.
“I think I have an idea! We can make another, reinforced tree house here! Bumblebee can have his time to remember, and you will have another tree house!”
But he shakes his head again.
“Thanks Sari, but I don’t think we can. You see, the solenoid is supposed to be a surprise from people who love you. And me and Bumblebee go way back, remember? He was part of that group of friends, he helped bring the beams up the tree. It’ll be like recycling a gift, and he’ll see it coming a mile away. …Besides, I don’t think any tree in Detroit can support my weight.”
Oh. Back to the drawing board, then. But Sari isn’t so easily defeated, she puts a hand under her chin, like her father does when he can’t figure out where the bug in his code is.
“Everything we did back on Cybertron can be hard to do here. The place is a bit different.” Prowl adds, thinking about a solution too.
“Why don’t we celebrate like you do on Earth?” Bulkhead proposes in the end, looking down at the girl. “We’ve seen one of your birthdays, Sari.”
“A birthday party, huh? It doesn’t seem too bad…”
“What do we need to prepare?” Prowl wonders.
“Well, for a birthday party, the birthday kid usually receives presents other children bring to him. Like dad gifted me Soundwave.”
“I remember that.” Bulkhead replies. “And I don’t think we’ll gift something like it to Bee. Or anyone else ever again.”
“Other ideas?” The ninja continues to ponder. “What defines a ‘birthday party’?”
“Let’s see…” Sari keeps thinking. “There’s the other people, maybe some games to play, music and… wait! Here it is! The birthday cake!”
“I’ve seen something like that.” Prowl snaps his fingers. “It’s an edible substance created by mixing ‘sponge’ and ‘icing’, right?”
“Sponges and ice?” Bulkhead raises a brow, to which Prowl shrugs. “Can Professor Sumdac even make that?”
“If you’re asking whether he can cook, the answer is no.” Sari crosses her arms, with a playful grin. “But he created a robot which could, and the cakes it made were the absolute best. Perhaps I can try to steal a recipe. Or, oh! I can make the cake myself, with sprinkles! How hard can it be?” Her mind already starts racing. Would Bumblebee prefer a chocolate cake, or lots of frosting? Oh, perhaps she should try something with honey, since it’s yellow! Or, some strawberry? She loves strawberry, how come she’s never shared any of her food with her friends? Even Ratchet wouldn’t say no to a good strawberry shortcake!
“But we can’t eat the same food that you do.” Bulkhead points out, huffing again, and there’s her answer. “And the small quantities you make would never be satisfying, even for someone as small as Bumblebee.”
Sari groans and ends up sitting on the steel floor of the corridor.
“Why is making a gift for Bumblebee so difficult? All of our ideas have led us nowhere.” She laments. “It would be just so much easier if we could simply ask him!”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Prowl says.
“Hello? It’s supposed to be a surprise!” Sari kicks her feet and crosses her arms.
“I didn’t mean openly go and ask him.” Prowl explains. “You would have to be sneaky. Stealthy, understand what he wants without him knowing. Like a cyber-ninja.”
“I’m not sneaky.” Bulkhead replies, sheepish. “Not even with words.”
“Yes, I wasn’t thinking about you.” Prowl continues, casting his gaze down. “What do you say, Sari? You think you can do it?”
“Get him to spill the bag?” The girl boasts, putting her hands on her hips and jumping back up to her feet. “I’ll be back here with his most hidden desires in minutes! Just watch me! I have hours of training with my father.
In hindsight, she shouldn’t have boasted that much. When she comes back to the couch, Bumblebee has switched to video games and is currently beating her record. She joins the competition soon after, and it takes all her willpower to not start sweating her own skin out as she looks for the perfect moment while also trying not to be too suspicious. She doesn’t think she can find the right words to touch on the idea without Bumblebee figuring something out, and she hates to admit it but maybe she should have gotten a few pointers from their local ninja.
“So, uh, Bee, my greatest friend, I… was thinking…”
“Yes?” The yellow bot asks, rolling the dice on his side of the screen and advancing on the virtual board painted on the TV. Sari swallows and puts on her most relaxed face, even if her hair is standing on end, and it would probably stay upright even if she were to remove her pigtails. If there’s something on her brow it isn’t sweat.
“So I… uh, I need some help.” Bumblebee turns to her, looking surprised.
“Help? What kind of help?”
“Uhm, I… I’m trying to figure out a gift for a friend. You know, short, he always walks around with an orange cap on his head…” No, no, no! She’s getting off track, it doesn’t matter who she’s thinking about. “Well you probably don’t know him anyway!” She ends up saying with an awkward laugh that lasts a bit too long and her brain starts flinging words out of her mouth. “But I kinda need a gift for him but I don’t know what to get him ‘cause I don’t really know what guys like him like even if you don’t know him do you have any ideas?”
Bumblebee arches his brow and looks thoughtful for a moment. All while Sari feels the sweat coat her skin and she really hopes she wasn’t being too obvious with her request even if her words came out faster than she intended.
“Well, I don’t really know what human kids like.” He replies in the end, shrugging. Sari bites back her tongue ready to ask ‘yes but what if it were you?’. “But if I had to answer, I’d say something speed related!” Bumblebee says, winking at her. “Human kids like those skateboards, right? And fast cars! I wouldn’t need one, since I’m the fastest bot and car around, but a kid… hey! I’ve got an idea! You can let him ride on me! I’ll make him have the best ride of his life, better than a roller-coaster!”
He looks so hopeful and ready to help it almost makes Sari’s heart squeeze in her chest. He looks so eager.
Too bad this actually hasn’t given her any insight. And it’s her turn on the board.
“Yes, maybe I’ll tell him that…”
She has to come back defeated (and she even lost because Bumblebee won the last mini game! Ugh!), but the time for figuring out the present is quickly running out. She reunites with Prowl and Bulkhead in one of the unused rooms, the latter is busy painting a banner and figuring out which shade to oppose to the yellow background so that ‘Happy solenoid Bumblebee!’ looks like an actual phrase.
“What did you learn?” Prowl asks, cleaning a few glasses with water from a pump and putting them on a previously cleaned table. They will probably use those to have a toast and then drink some oil all together. Honestly, it begs the question if Bumblebee could drink motor oil up until this point. And, if the rest of the team can, do they basically always drink and drive? Would it even count as drinking and driving?
She shakes her head, both to get those thoughts away and to reply to Prowl.
“I tried to ask help to give a gift to a friend, and he ended up telling me something speed-related. But, since he already is the fastest bot around, to make this ‘friend’ have a ride on him instead. I don’t know, maybe I can ask my father to make him a giant-sized skateboard.” She ends up pouting.
“Don’t beat yourself up, Sari. We still have until tomorrow.” Bulkhead cheers her up. “Why don’t you look at my work instead? Here, I think you’ll both like it!”
Sari raises her gaze to look at the work in progress right behind Bulkhead. This painting is different from the rest she’s seen him make. This one has very warm colours, and is depicting in rather delicate and cosy strokes a piece of their everyday life: Bumblebee and Sari slouched on the couch, watching the TV or maybe just playing video games, or simply talking. The light bounces off Bumblebee’s plating in a very peculiar way (dare she think poetic, but it’s more of a thing Prowl would say). It’s very different from her appearance, her body absorbs the light instead of reflecting it, but they don’t appear to be very different. They are still sharing the same place, they are still sharing the same moment.
It’s… really beautiful. She doesn’t know how else to explain it.
“It’s… incredible, Bulkhead.” She murmurs after a while. “I wonder if I’ll be able to make a gift worthy of this…”
“Don’t give up yet! I’m sure you’ll find the perfect present!”
“Present?” A deeper voice asks, followed by calm and confident steps. Sari turns around just in time to see Optimus come into the room, looking around at the place being swept clean by Prowl’s neat swipes. His gaze trails to the painting Bulkhead is still holding, and to Sari. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, boss-bot.” Bulkhead puts his art away and walks a few steps forward. “Don’t tell Bumblebee, it’s supposed to be a surprise!”
“Tell what to Bumblebee?” Optimus asks, raising an optic ridge.
“We’re preparing a party for him!” The green bot explains, gesturing widely with his hands. “Actually, don’t tell Ratchet either. He probably wouldn’t like it.”
“A party?” The Prime continues to look confused. “Bulkhead, I know you two are friends, but throwing a random party for Bumblebee doesn’t seem like the wisest choice to me, especially when we know there are Decepticons on the loose on this planet.”
“But it’s not a random party!” Sari backs him up. “It’s his eighteen- uh, eighth birthd- ah, solenoid! His eighth solenoid! Bulkhead has told me it’s important!”
Prime takes a moment to switch his gaze on her, and he almost winces.
“His eighth? Already? You wouldn’t say that by looking at him…”
“I’m still rather dubious myself.” Prowl explains, reaching them with a swift step, the dust-covered floor becoming clear behind him. “But I checked the maths and controlled it with Teletraan-I too. The timing is exactly right.”
“So you didn’t trust me, huh?”
“Now, Bulkhead, Prowl didn’t say that.” Optimus steps in before the situation can escalate. Not that Sari fears for Prowl, but the room would have to be cleaned again if they started fighting. “So you’re preparing a party for him, huh? These look more like Earth decorations to me.” He scans the room, at the table with drinks, at the banner and at the present Bulkhead has prepared.
“We had a lot of ideas on what to do!” Sari explains. “But very few we could make here.”
“I see.” Optimus nods. “Alright, since this is Bulmbebee’s important solenoid, this time I’ll make an exception. But next time, I’d rather know before you start planning.”
“Uh, sure, boss-bot.” Bulkhead replies. “Sorry.”
“Hey, Prime.” Sari asks, walking until she’s basically at his feet, and he crouches down to humour her. She keeps her grin friendly even if she wants to display all her teeth. “We could use a few more ideas. How did you celebrate your important solenoid?” The prime looks pensive for a moment, before looking back down on her.
“It was some time ago, now. I was in the academy already, and my friends prepared a… small, but heartfelt, celebration for me. Basically everyone I knew attended. Elita one prepared some energon jellies and a few of them…” He stifles a small laugh, remembering how Kup’s cy-gar lit up after an energon bean exploded in his face, followed by Elita and Sentinel’s uncontrollable laughter, and well, Optimus’ too but Sari doesn’t need to know that. “Regardless, it was a good party. There was music, and we had a good time.” Sari huffs, half-displeased but quickly finding her cunning again.
“It really sounds like a ‘Prime’s guide to parties’.” Optimus tires not to take offence, but he does flinch slightly as the girl presses on. “I mean, you are kinda old. If you were a human, you’d probably be in your mid-twenties. Twenty-five or something.”
Optimus gives Bulkhead a glance, and the Bot starts counting in his mind.
“Well, let’s see… that would be around… uh, eight-hundred and ten human years, which is…”
“I’ve heard enough!” The Prime yells, quite startled. “And I’m not that old, Sari!” The girls looks apologetic and confused at the sudden outburst.
“It’s not a proper conversion, Boss-bot.” Bulkhead calms him down. “And besides, humans age very differently. They get mature at around their eighteenth solenoid. That’s really long for us.”
“Ah, is that so?” Optimus clears his vocalizer and resettles himself. “Then I apologize. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“So how old are you actually?” Sari questions, trotting happily to the Prime’s foot. The boss looks at her with a raised brow, but then figures it wouldn’t do any harm to share this information.
“I’m around fourteen.”
The girl smiles in awe.
“Oh! That’s so young! You wouldn’t be able to even drive if you were a human!”
“That’s still four-hundred and sixty earth revolutions, Sari, I think I’m old enough to drive.” Optimus replies with a soft smile, and stands up. “So, what are you preparing for Bumblebee?” The girl perks up, and motions to the room around her.
“Ta-da! We’ll drink oil, Bulkhead is making decorations, and Prowl is cleaning the place! I haven’t thought of a proper gift to give him yet, but I’ve snatched these prototype magnetic poppers my father is working on a few days ago, and they might be an emergency present! Just watch!” Before Prime can tell her that using prototypes it’s not the best idea for a party, the girl has already uncovered two shining cones of steel and has pushed a button.
There’s the loud noise of a siren and then small pieces of coloured paper and thin aluminium foil fly out with such force that they jerk the girl back, and when Prime dives to try and help her he’s invested by a thousand small pieces that attach to his plating and magnetize within a nanosecond. Not that they can actually impede his movement, but they feel a bit uncomfortable.
When he looks up, Sari has safely landed in the cloth Bulkhead was using to paint, and looks up with a sheepish smile.
“I don’t think you should be bringing prototypes out of your father’s workshop without his consent. You can never know whether these will work like you expect them to.” He gently scolds, while he’s busy trying to pry away a piece of greenish aluminium. Unfortunately it’s like glued to his chassis and that will be more work on Ratchet’s plate. “And, frankly, this looks a bit… garish.”
Even Prowl looks back, somewhat surprised. He was fast enough to avoid the poppers, Prime thinks at the back of his processor, before huffing. “Let me explain. My solenoid was a time to meet old friends I hadn’t seen in megacycles. We were all studying or working, we didn’t really have the shanix- or well, money, to buy anything. So we just met, enjoyed the night, someone brought something to eat, someone else brought speakers, and that was it. We talked. I caught up with so many people I cared about, and that was enough. I don’t have a physical reminder of that night, but I treasure those memories deep in my spark regardless. I appreciate the effort you’re putting into making this party for Bumblebee, but I think, something that will help him remember everyone is here for him, just a genuine good time, might be enough.”
Sari looks down, hiding the prototype behind her back and letting some of Prime’s words settle in. To herself, she whispers:
“You’re old inside.” Then louder, and kicking back up from her makeshift cushion. “I know, I get it. But… I’d still like to make something physical. Because he likes that kind of stuff.”
The Prime nods sadly.
“Well then, you could… try to make something that he can eat instead.”
“The best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Prowl agrees, reciting the phrase like it’s an ancient Earth’s proverb.
“Yes, I thought about making a cake.” Sari stresses. “But you guys can’t eat that.”
“We have enough reserves of Energon to indulge a couple of times.” Optimus continues, and Sari’s eyes go wide.
“Are you sure, boss?” Prowl questions. “We are on a limited supply.”
“I don’t think it will impair our reserves in a meaningful way. The ship took most of our power, but now that it’s shut down we don’t need to worry about energon anymore.”
“Isn’t that what fuels you?” Sari gestures wildly. “But… I can’t give it to him like that, it’d be like gifting someone flour because they like doughnuts! Or, uh, pasta. Or bread.”
“Then maybe you can bake something. You won’t give him just the building bloc, but the finished product!” Bulkhead points out. “And you’ll show him that you learned something new for him.”
“You can use energon to bake??”
“And quite a few things actually. It’s more like your flour than you think.” Prowl continues. “Usually you add various metals to give it a particular taste.”
Bulkhead nods. “For example, copper is sweet! I know Bee likes copper.” Optimus copies his movement.
“If we have a few recipes, they’ve got to be in the ship’s main computer. I’ll give you clearance to go and check that out.”
Prowl steps up with a small grin.
“I can keep Bumblebee busy so he won’t notice your absence. I’m sure he won’t say no to some rapidity training and a couple of challenges to see who’s faster.” Sari’s eyes shine.
“Yes! Thank you, Prowl! We’ll get on the ship, get some of the stuff, a recipe and then I can steal- uh.” She gives Prime another sheepish grin. “I’ll ask my father for some copper nicely, so we can make sweet treats. I promise, Optimus!”
The boss looks satisfied and content. “Alright then. Be careful.”
Chapter Text
Getting on the ship is not hard, and it isn’t scary like the first time as a stowaway with Bumblebee. Bulkhead is bigger, more noticeable, but having a thicker barrier between Sari and the pressure of Lake Erie is nothing short of safer.
They don’t even have to sneak in, because everyone is back on base and Bulkhead has the clearance to open the ship (it’s his ship too, theoretically) and they stroll into the space with little to no issue.
“Do you know where to look?” She asks after Bulkhead gives her a ride on his hand because everything here is gargantuan compared to her.
“I think I’ll just activate Teletraan-I and ask it to check for easy and quick energon recipes.” He gets to one of the terminals, the top one where the boss should reside, she figures, and starts tapping on various keys that look nothing like a modern keyboard. But the actual key she keeps around her neck becomes a bit warmer.
“Hey! Bulkhead!” She raises it so he can see the faint glow. “What if I speed up the process?”
“Well, this ship has its age… a lot older than all of our solenoids combined.” He explains, squinting at it. “It shouldn’t be too bad to give it a boost…”
A lock materializes from the control panel, and Sari leans in to plug in her key when-
“And what do you think you’re doing?”
An old, ragged, usually rancid voice reaches her and she’s forced to pocket the key before he can notice and start complaining for a whole day.
“Ratchet! Doc-bot!” Bulkhead startles, and the red and white ambulance comes up to them with a speed she’s never seen him. After all, he is rather old… she would kinda like to ask him his age, but now’s not the best time, probably. He crosses his arms and gives them an attentive look.
“Answer me, kid. This is no place for a human.”
“Caught us…” Sari whispers.
“We… we needed to find some recipes.” Bulkhead admits, slouching. Ratchet’s old expression cycles through confusion, terror, incredulity and back to being baffled.
“Recipes?”
“E… Energon recipes.”
“Energon recipes? And why are you doing that, exactly?”
“It’s going to be Bee’s solenoid soon! His eighth!” And wow, she’s surprised at how smoothly this time she can say it. “We’re making a party, and I wanted to prepare something sweet for him! Like, I’m sure something like that had to happen to your solenoid at some point!” Come on, say how long ago it was say it!
Ratchet’s eyes go wide, he looks a bit detached like when he ‘checks something internally’ Bumblebee has said (although Sari has no idea what that actually means) and then hums.
“Well, it looks like he’s going to be come a young man soon after all. I don’t know how I didn’t notice that. Must be my age, my big solenoid was so long ago this lake probably hadn’t even formed yet.” He rubs in, a bit more acidic than necessary. “So, you’re looking for recipes?”
Sari isn’t impaired. “Yes! Bulk here said copper tastes sweet!”
“It does!” The green bot exclaims. “And it’s also Bumblebee’s favourite. We haven’t had a moment to indulge in a long time, and Prime said we can use some of our energon.”
“I’m afraid you’re in the wrong place to look for those.” Ratchet shakes his head and puts his arms on his hips. “Have you forgotten that this is a space bridge maintenance ship?” He says those words like they taste sour in his mouth. “And that before this, he was a military ship? How do you think energon recipes made their way in here? Everything you’ll find are manuals on space bridge repair and military tactics used too long ago.”
“Aw, really?” Sari says, dejected, then checks the water outside that’s becoming impossibly dark. “But I don’t have much time anymore. His solenoid is tomorrow!” Bulkhead turns to her, trying to cheer her up.
“Uhm, you can still try and help me with the banner! We can work on that together!”
“But I wanted to make something for him by myself. Even if it’s just the thought that counts.” She sits down on the controls, looking cross, feeling like a tingle in her eyes. Bulkhead scratches the back of his head.
“We could, uh… oh, we’ve asked everyone for ideas! Is there really nothing you can do?”
There’s a couple of steps in their direction, and Ratchet leans a hand on the same panel the girl is propped up on.
“Do you want to learn how to make energon goodies?”
Sari’s head whips around and up to look at Ratchet, who has one of the softest looks he’s ever seen on him, not quite a smile, perhaps more like a grimace but it could also be that he’s so old and rancid he’s forgotten how to. Overall, he looks weird.
“Yes, but we can’t find anything anywhere…”
“I… might know how to make them.” He replies in the end, bracing for when Sari unavoidably springs up with a bounce.
“Really? And- and you’ll teach me?!” Ratchet raises an eyebrow.
“It shouldn’t be too dangerous for you… but you have to promise me you’ll never do so alone.”
“I promise!” Sari’s hands open up by her side and she leans forward, towards the medic. He nods.
“Alright then. I’ll show you how to do it.” He quickly prepares himself for when the girl runs on the control panel and hugs his servo, which remains perfectly still due to an old medic reflex, while the girl’s chanting:
“Thank you thank you thank you thank you!”
“But you’ll have to gather various minerals. And you will have to ask for them, am I clear? No more sneaking into dangerous places.” Sari pouts a little, but then gives a gigantic smile. She can see why Optimus and Ratchet are friends after all.
“Prime already told me to do that! I’m sure my father will have no problem giving us some of his stuff for one of my friends! So, how much copper?”
“Not just copper.” Ratchet says, and shakes his servo just a little to get her to let go. “I want magnesium, cobalt and… and iron.” He mutters something under his breath that Sari is too far away to catch but it feels like a soft curse, Cybertronian maybe, and something about Prime. “About a kilogram each. Think you can get those?” Sari beams.
“Yup, I can do that!”
“Then let’s meet back up with the stuff. I’ll get some things ready.”
Sari only needs a couple of ‘please’s and ‘thank you’s and a generous use of good girl eyes to get a small trolley that Bulkhead helps her carrying back to base along with a few pinkish cubes that are probably energon. They spy Bumblebee and Prowl still moving at almost lightning speed right behind the old factory and walk in unnoticed by the pair.
Prime is on monitor duty again, and stops his quiet routine to nod at them and gesture towards one of the back rooms, probably put up to speed by Ratchet. Sari gives him a thumbs up and heads with the heavy trolley in the given direction.
It’s not hard to find the room Ratchet has prepared. All the way to the right, there’s what might have been a furnace room. There’s dozens of machinery that look like too-big ovens, only one turned on, with Ratchet standing dutifully in front of it, like a grandma in front of a fireplace. He’s just missing a rocking chair, a crochet blanket and a cat. Bulkhead deposits the energon he’s gathered from the ship on the floor, and Sari stops with the reinforced trolley to look.
Ratchet puts a rustic cake pan on the floor – only gigantic and probably welded by himself with spare metal he found around. She could probably run laps around it, or use it like a kiddie pool. It’s not even completely circular, looking mostly like an oval squashed on the side, but at least it appears clean. Sari looks up at the medic.
“So? What are we making?”
“Rust sticks.”
The girl raises an eyebrow. “Rust? Isn’t rust bad for you?” Bulkhead straightens.
“Well, yes, but it’s just the name.” Then he gives a big smile to her too. “And they’re really good! I ate them all the time when I was your age!” Then he chuckles. “Well, if you consider when I was… never mind.”
Ratchet scoffs, but for a second it feels more like a snort.
“Yeah, yeah, you go and keep Bee occupied. There’s only so much training the kid can take before he decides to wander off.” Ratchet gestures for Bulkhead to get out. He sags.
“What? But I want a rust stick too…”
“And you’ll have them. I can’t give all these rust sticks to Bumblebee, he’s already active enough as it is. And if he gets cyber-cavities, that’s my job to fix and you can bet your shiny bumper I don’t want to deal with that.” The medic stresses. “So I’ll make some for everyone, and we’ll share.”
“For me too?” Sari asks, with sparkling eyes. Ratchet raises his brow.
“But you’re… well, we’ll see.”
“Woo!”
“So get out of here.” Ratchet orders to Bulkhead, pointing to the door.
“Oh… okay.” The green bot reluctantly agrees, then heads for the door. “Don’t stay too close to the fire, okay Sari?” The girl gets on her tiptoes and waves, missing how Ratchet rolls his eyes instead. Then she turns around, ready to get working. Or cooking.
“So, what do I do?”
“First things first, rules.” Ratchet sentences in a way that makes Sari groan. “You don’t come close to the furnace. It’s really hot because it has to melt the metals. So you stay right where you are.”
“I thought I said I wanted to prepare them?”
“And you will. But you will leave the actual baking to me.” Sari sighs, but it’s not like she can go against Ratchet, and her father always tells her she should stay away from the stove, and she figures a giant furnace is probably more dangerous, so she tries not to let it ruin her mood too much. “But for now, we can start like this.”
Ratchet slides the pan towards her, settles down right besides it and grabs a cube of energon from the pile Bulkhead has left, that’s almost as big as half the kid, and puts a hand under it.
“Now look at me. You get the cube, you hold it like this. No, with the other hand- like that. Then, with the other, you look for a latch on this side.” Sari fumbles a bit, feeling her hand slip while Ratchet finds easily whatever she’s supposed to touch and she grins when she manages to find an indentation on the top side. Ratchet nods. “You push it, and the cube opens.”
He does it flawlessly, but Sari needs a bit of concentration and some extra force, but the cube opens and it doesn’t even fall from her hands (close, but she doesn’t spill a single drop!). There’s some heat emitting from the box, and she stares into the pink pool of… liquid? Solid? Something else? She turns the cube a bit on one side and a bit to the other. The liquid sloshes, and the thickness reminds her of honey ready to be put into a cup of hot milk. She can’t help but be amazed.
Ratchet gives her a moment to pick through her emotions, and then pours the energon into the pan. Sari does the same, putting the cube on the side and then tipping it over carefully. Ratchet nods.
“Alright. Two more.” Sari grabs another cube, and she doesn’t have any problems opening it this time. “Then, we’ll put the metals into it.”
Sari nods and jumps back to her feet to get the trolley and open it. There’s various packets, that all look the same to her: filled with small metallic powder, all gray. At least they’re labelled. She gets the packets out, ‘copper’, ‘magnesium’, ‘cobalt’ and ‘iron’.
“Here they are!” When she looks up, Ratchet is squinting at them with his mouth open, looking baffled. She looks down at the packets, thinking maybe one of them is damaged and now there’s metal everywhere, but it looks fine.
“Is… is something wrong?”
“You got them powdered?” Ratchet leans in to poke one finger into the packet, like he doesn’t believe they are real. Sari pouts.
“Well you didn’t tell me I shouldn’t have them powdered!”
“No, no.” Ratchet replies as quickly as she’s ever seen him, still shocked but more relieved than anything, even going as far as to crack the shadow of a smile. “It’s… it’s perfect. Why’d you get them powdered?”
“Dad always gets powdered sugar and stuff when he tries and fails to bake something. Flour is powdered too if you think about it.” She shrugs. “So I did that.”
Ratchet grabs the first packet, observing it with… is that glee in his eyes? Awe?
“You just spared us a lot of work, kid.” He replies. “Thank you.”
Sari’s surprised of the sudden change in demeanour, but she’s not going to hold it against him, so she smiles again.
“You’re welcome!” Then she leans back towards the pan in between them. “So, what do we do next?”
“We pour them in.” Ratchet explains, opening the first packet, the copper one, with almost surgical precision. “Think of dividing it in four quarters, and pour all of the metal into that quarter. I’ll show you, and then you do it.”
“Okay, but why are we dividing them?”
“Everyone has their own tastes. Bulkhead hates cobalt, and Optimus can’t stand magnesium, for example.” While he’s talking, he pours the metal into the pan. The grains fall to the bottom, and gradually disappear, like salt does in water. Sari sighs in awe.
Ratchet puts the packet away and keeps a magnet turned to the pan. His wrist lights up in the usual pinkish hue as he magnetizes the pan.
“Now’s your turn, kid. Iron goes here.” He points to an area close to where he poured the first packet.
“On it!” Sari gets back on her feet, fetches the correct packet and opens it. Then she watches as the metal gets engorged and disappears again. “How can you tell the flavours aren’t mixing?”
“Because I’m keeping them separated with my magnets.” He points to his wrist, and now his second magnet’s also out.
“I thought all metals were magnetic?”
“Mostly, yes.” Ratchet explains as Sari pours another packet in. “But they react differently, and I can keep them easily separated. If you don’t mix it around, they should remain separated, and we’ll see it when they’re done cooking.” Having emptied the last packet, Sari steps up to look into the pan. It barely looks any different.
“Will they change colour?”
“If we’ve done everything correctly, yes.” The other explains, stopping the effect of his magnets and retracting them to get up with a huff and various creaks. “Now we bake.”
“Yes, yes, I’m staying here…” Sari pouts, taking a step back. Ratchet nods.
“Good. But since they’re already powdered, it shouldn’t take too long.”
Sari understands why she has to stand back the moment Ratchet opens the oven-slash-furnace to slide the pan in. Even as far as she is, she’s hit by a wave of heat that would have combusted her immediately were she to be as close as Ratchet. When he finally closes it, she can feel her hair in disarray.
“Oh.”
“Now you see why you have to stand back?”
Sari nods, before fixing her dress and hair.
“Okay, so what do we do while we wait?”
Ratchet gives her his usual ‘no fun allowed’ look and her shoulders drop as she sits back down. “You’re never fun… hey, why don’t you tell me how you celebrated your important solenoid?” Ratchet rolls his eyes.
“It was a long time ago, kid…”
“Pretty please?” She asks, begs, clasps her hands in front of her chest and blinks until Ratchet gives in with a long sigh.
“When I was that young there was no war yet. It was relatively peaceful, and during our vacation time from med school me and some of my friends went for a tour around our planet.”
“So like… you took a trip?” The girl asks, squinting. Ratchet looks back into the furnace, hiding a small smile.
“All around Cybetron. We started from Iacon, where our academy was, then went to Kaon, Helex… Pharma made sure we stopped at Vaporhex too, the fragger…” He then almost jerks and looks down, like he’s said a word Sari wasn’t supposed to hear. Like… the Cybetronian equivalent of a swear word, perhaps? "You didn't hear that from me."
Rather than dwell on that, she decides to ask a few more things.
“So uh, these places… were they cool?”
“Kaon had its perks before the war started. Helex was never much, but it was close to Crystal City, and that… well, that was beautiful.”
“And that last one?” Sari asks, cocking her head to the side. “Vapour… vapor-something?”
“Vaporhex?” Ratchet replies, whipping around to look at her.
“Yeah, that.”
“Funny you should ask that. Vaporhex was a really small town in the middle of nowhere. It was were I was born.” He replies, then grimaces. “It was destroyed early in the war.”
Sari doesn’t exactly know what it means to lose the city you were born with, but she figures she’d be pretty sad if she were to lose Detroit to the Decepticons. She doesn’t have many friends here, barely any, but she supposes it would make her feel empty inside.
“Oh.” It’s all she can find in herself to say. “I’m sorry.”
“It hardly was the only one.” Ratchet continues, looking inside the furnace and using his magnifying lenses to check something. It’s getting a bit too grim for Sari.
“And… and who were your friends?” She asks with glee, before she can remember the only other person she’s overheard him and Prime talk about from the war. That girl, Arcee, and recalling her sorry finale. She winces. “Sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked that.”
Ratchet raises his head to look back at her.
“Don’t make this your burden to bear, kid, you’re too young for that. Besides.” He knocks once on the furnace, somewhat regaining a soft bittersweet smile. “Pharma was a friend of mine on that trip. He taught me this recipe.”
“Really?” She asks, leaning forward but scurrying back when Ratchet catches her.
“He was good at making rust sticks, a true master in the art of sweet-making. When he made them the whole academy took a trip to our dormitory to try and steal some. But he liked them with manganese. Manganese!” He stresses the word like it’s supposed to mean something specific. “It tastes little better than battery acid. I don’t even know how he could bear making them.”
It only takes a couple more minutes before Ratchet stops rambling about his old days and gets the pan out with another heatwave, and then powers down the furnace. He doesn’t even try to touch it with his hands, instead relying on his magnets to bring it down on the floor and sliding it closer to Sari can look at it, but keep a safe distance as it’s still steaming. There’s a tangy smell that makes her nose itch, but it’s not too unbearable.
But it’s really pretty, colour-wise! There’s a side that’s a slightly darker pink than regular energon, a side has become a neon green, another has turned a pretty vibrant blue and the last is a shining yellow. There’s no clear lines between them, and the colours melt and mix into the others in the thin lines where they meet, creating softer greens, purples and reds.
“It’s so cool!” Sari can’t help but squeal in delight. “Our food doesn’t become as pretty as this!”
“Don’t touch it yet, it still has to cool down.” Ratchet warns, like Sari can’t understand that herself, using his magnets to raise the circular part of the pan, leaving only the bottom and putting it quite out of the girl’s reach.
“Yeah, I got that. It’s so pretty though! I’m sure Bumblebee will love this!” Ratchet tuts.
“Where do you think you’re going, it’s not finished yet. Do these look like sticks to you?”
Sari looks down into the pan, that’s almost completely cooled down by this point. It… Ratchet has a point. If they’re called ‘rust sticks’, they don’t look like they have much to do with rust, or sticks.
“Uh, no. But not like rust either.” Ratchet almost laughs. Almost. It comes out more as a cough, but Sari knows how to read him.
“That’s because people used the rust remains to use them. Rust melts beautifully into energon.” He explains, like it’s the most normal thing in the world, and not like they put rust into food they ate. Sari tries not to think about it too hard.
“Okay, so… what’s the next step?”
Ratchet rummages inside his chassis, Sari is almost afraid he’s going to pull some fresh rust (can rust be fresh? Ah, she said she wouldn’t think about it! But now she is!) when he kneels down and offers her a dull kitchen knife, which does look a bit rusty (don’t think about it don’t think about it) but also like it was cleaned a short while ago.
“Now we cut them into sticks.” He replies, getting another, bigger knife, for himself but keeping it firmly out of her reach. He opens a cube of energon while barely looking at it and dips two fingers in. Then he coats his blade with the shiny pink substance. He does the same for her small knife, clearly not trusting her to do so alone without cutting something. Part of Sari is grateful for the attention.
Ratchet gets his lens outside again, squints through it and makes two very neat cuts that divide the ‘cake’ into quarters.
“Make small slices.” He instructs, using his blade to show how it should be done. “The energon will make it easier to cut neat pieces. You do so when you make cakes, don’t you? It shouldn’t be too hard. Then we’ll cut each in half and make sticks out of them.”
“They’ll be slices.” Sari counters, but she starts cutting and with the blade coated in pink energon it slides neatly in and out. “They won’t be sticks.”
“They will look small enough to be sticks.” Ratchet retorts, and his old man attitude is back as quickly as it disappeared. “Hey, watch it! That’s too big. Cut in in half!”
Sari groans but does her best. This is for Bumblebee after all.
When she’s cut thousands of sticks, or at least it feels like that, the girl can’t help but yawn. It must be becoming late, even if she’s barely finished the first quarter. There’s the second, the blue one, that still needs to be done, but it’s so hard to keep going, because she can’t keep her eyes open.
Ratchet ushers her out of the room, where Prime is already waiting to give her a lift back to Sumdac Tower and to her father. Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Prowl are nowhere to be seen.
Sari thinks she got back into the tower and somehow crawled into her bed. Or her father led her there. Regardless, it doesn’t matter (because she can’t remember), but most importantly, because soon it’s morning, the sun is shining on Detroit and there’s her best friend’s party to attend!
She’s bouncing on her feet and skipping as she walks with a distinctive pep in her in step. She doesn’t often go to parties. Birthday parties are even rarer! Bee’s birthday parties, apparently, are so rare his next one will be when she’s already old! So this one has to count!
When she reaches into the abandoned factory, everything has been scrubbed clean, is shining in a way Sari didn’t even know metal could. Prowl is busy hanging Bulkhead’s banners, Prime is rearranging the TV set and the chairs. There’s the pleasant smell of lavender and some less recognizable of oil. Seems like they’re getting ready.
“Hi guys!” She shouts, jumping in. “Can I help you?”
Prowl and Optimus turn to her. Prowl lands gracefully close to her.
“You woke up earlier than usual.” He points out, but he does look down at her with a tiny sly smile. “You can’t wait either, huh?”
“Keep your voices low.” Prime continues, walking closer. “Bumblebee is still in recharge. We don’t want to wake him, do we?”
Sari giggles but stifles her sound with her hands. She can’t help the gigantic grin on her face! Bumblebee will be overjoyed!
“Where are the others?” She asks, softly yet still giggling.
“Bulkhead is watching Bee’s door, so we can tell when he wakes up.” Prowl explains.
“And Ratchet is probably still in recharge as well. Let’s not wake him up.”
“He brought the treats?” Sari questions, earning a double raised brow.
“Treats?”
“The… energon something!” She answers, feeling a bit jittery. “We made them and turned them into small slices? Like… rust, maybe? Rust-something?”
“Rust sticks?” Prime provides, looking confused.
“Yeah! That!”
The two mechs exchange confused looks. Optimus looks apologetic.
“We didn’t see anything of the sorts.”
“But… but it’s my present!” Sari wails. “I’ve gotta wake up Ratchet, and fast! Before Bee wakes up!”
“No need.” An old, gruff voice adds, definitely woken up from his nap. “I’m here.”
Ratchet appears from the door leading to the rooms, with a few packets in his hands. He probably reused the ones Sari left yesterday night, they look identical. But this time, instead of being labelled by metal, there are other quick, barely readable strokes that Sari can never hope to make sense of. If she’s daring to guess, it’s probably Cybetronian, but written in medical calligraphy. He walks forward, pushing the first packet into Optimus’ hands, then moves to Prowl and does the same thing.
“These are for you. Don’t tell the kid yet.” Sari watches him go to the central table and open another, the biggest, of the packets in the middle, into a gigantic-sized bowl. She looks up at Prowl, who is trying to decipher the gylphs on the label and gives up soon enough, before opening the packet instead. They’re all yellow. Prowl sniffs them.
“You… made cobalt rush sticks?”
“Seems like it.” Ratchet replies curtly, not even bothering to look around. Prowl offers a small smile to his back.
“Thanks. They’re my favourite.”
“I know.”
Prime unpacks his own, which look like the neon green batch. He turns one in his hand.
“Are… these…”
“Iron.” Ratchet replies gruffly. “You are iron-deficient. And you never take enough.”
“Hey!” Sari calls out, weaving her fists around. “I helped making them too! Right, Ratchet?” The old medic rolls his eyes, but it’s mostly to hide the sincerely content look in them.
“Yes, I guess you did what you could…” Good enough for her. She puts her hands on her hips and broadens her stance.
“So I deserve some too! Before Bee wakes up!”
“What? No.” Prime intrudes, pocketing the ‘stick’ back. “Sari, this is energon. You can’t eat this, it’s not made for humans.”
“But I’m iron-something-cient too! I heard my father say something like it once!”
“It’s two different kinds of iron deficiency, kid.” Ratchet ruins it. “You can’t eat these. Energon and humans don't mix. Give these to the big guy when he gets here.” He says, waving the final packet of dark pink slices-but-rust-sticks.
Sari pouts. She wasn’t exactly promised some sticks, but she helped bake them! It’s logical for her to get a taste, is it not?
Before she can retort there are loud steps of someone running through the corridor, and Bulkhead appears on the scene with his usual grace. He fumbles a bit with words and sounds until he can finally tell all of them:
“Bee woke up!”
“You bet I did!” The yellow scout appears right behind Bulkhead, with his hands spread wide. “It’s… uh, woah.” His eyes scan the room. From Sari, to the banner, to the table filled with treats, to the rest of the people in the room. “Did I miss something?”
“Happy solenoid Bumblebee!” Bulkhead exclaims, raising the yellow Bot into his arms and twirling it around.
“It’s… my solenoid already?” The other asks, voices somewhat stifled by the harsh grip. “I… I didn’t even know!”
“And it’s not just a regular solenoid, either.” Prowl points out, raising his finger to show the banner. It takes a couple of seconds for Bumblebee to truly read it, but his eyes go wide next.
“My… my eighth?”
“Happy solenoid, Bee!” Sari runs to hug him, and Bumblebee, for maybe the first time in his life, finds himself speechless.
“I… I really don’t know what to say. Thank you!”
“And!” Sari continues, getting on the tips of her toes. “We have brought presents!” Bumblebee makes a real squeal.
“Really??”
“Yes! I’ve made a painting for you!” Bulkhead explains, showing off his work with a proud look on his face.
“Woah! Bulk, this is your best work yet! I can’t believe it!”
“And I made rush- uh, rusk… rust sticks! Copper ones!” Sari continues, and Bumblebee darts to get Ratchet out of the way and make a clear line for the blue treats that now are on the table.
“Really? I can’t believe this!” Without waiting for a clear, he pops some in his mouth, and jumps in delight. “Thank you thank you thank you! I haven’t had these in the longest time!”
He jumps back to Sari, gets her up and gives her a small hug. Sari happily reciprocates his embrace on his face, and she can’t help but giggle! Seems like all her hard work has finally paid off!
Someone clears his vocalizer and they all turn to look at Prime, who looks as solemn as he can.
“Bumblebee of Iacon.” He says, taking a step forward. “Today marks the day of your eighth solenoid on Cybetron. It is not a date to be taken lightly, for you are officially a trustworthy member of our team, not that anyone doubted that.” Sari pointedly ignores Prowl and Ratchet’s exchange of glares. “For this, I’ve thought of a small gift. You can decide to take a few days off, and take a road trip around this planet. Take who you want with you. See what you wish, and understand the world around you better.”
Sari inhales until she feels like her lungs are about to explode.
“You’re giving me a trip??” Bumblebee shouts, his voice going almost shrill. “Really?” When Prime nods, Bumblebee sprints and jumps and somersaults around, carrying Sari with him. “I can’t believe this! This is the best day ever!”
There’s one last exchange between Prime and Prowl (or at least Sari thinks, it’s hard to focus while Bumblebee jumps up and down like he’s a roller coaster) and Prowl steps up too, holding the yellow rockets that were built for Bumblebee a bit ago. The ones he’s not allowed to use anymore. He looks confused, and Sari with him.
“And, since you worked so hard for you training these days, I’ve come to an agreement. You may use these in a few missions. But you still have to ask for permission first, alright?”
“I can?!” Bumblebee whips to Optimus, who’s nodding with that calm smile of his. This time Sari can’t hold on quick enough before Bumblebee starts to move and spin and twirl again, with a loud whoop.
Finally he stops, and looks with a sly smile at Ratchet, who’s been sitting with his arms crossed all this time.
“And you doc? Don’t you have a small gift for little old me?” He almost pleads. “Maybe a mod? Something to enhance my capabilities? I can take it, now, can’t I?”
“I helped make the treats.” Ratchet snaps back. “Don’t expect anything more from me.” He replies after popping one into his mouth. Bumblebee jerks back, but he shrugs, too happy to be bummed out by this.
“I… guess that’s alright.”
Bulkhead then turns on his favourite band on the enormous stereo speakers, loud enough to hide Ratchet grumbling, and the party goes on.
It’s only after countless songs, various games and drinks and oil that Sari finally plops down on the ouch, already feeling drained. Despite his initial disapproval, Ratchet ends up joining the party as well, and she even catches Prowl laughing. Not a small giggle, an all-out laugh at one of Bumblebee’s jokes. If this is what birthday parties feel like, she might have to find a way to attend more.
She turns to the side, eyes the folds of the couch and spies something hidden in them. Making sure nobody is paying her any mind and shuffling fast to it, she pries a small blue rust stick out. Someone, probably Bumblebee, lost it while they were there. Should she eat something from the couch? Eh, probably not. But it’s not like it was down on the ground, and Prowl is good at cleaning. Oh well, it’s time for Sari to claim her tax on her work.
She turns so she’s hidden and bites down some of the rust stick. The texture is a bit weird, but it’s actually sweet, just like Bulkhead said. And, it feels a bit tingly on the back of her throat. That’s good! It’s a nice sensation all things considered.
She quickly finishes it and turns to look at her friends.
This is a party she’ll remember for the rest of her life.