Optimus woke up the next morning to little servos gently patting his faceplates. His optics opened slowly, and he gave a little smile to the sparkling version of Miko as her bright golden optics stared at him.

"Good morning, Miko," Optimus said softly as he sat up, moving Miko from her position on his chest to his lap.

"Yeah, morning," she said dismissively, "I'm really hungry, dude! Like 'I'm gonna die' hungry!"

"Ugh. Agreed, I feel like my stomach is collapsing in on itself," Jack groaned from his position next to Optimus and Miko where he was spread out in a starfish position.

"And good morning to you too, Jack," Optimus responded to his squeaking.

"Can we get food now?" the boy asked.

Of course, Optimus couldn't understand what they were saying as their words only came out as squeaks to anyone that wasn't them apparently. Miko and Jack had caught onto this and looked to each other to try and collaborate and brainstorm ideas to make him realise what they were trying to say.

"We could start screaming so they panic and try everything they think we might want?" Miko suggested with a grin.

"Huh, I don't know about that one," Jack thought, "don't we get stomachs that make noises when we're hungry anymore? Ah scrap, I don't know anything about Cybertronian biology..."

"Can we please stay on topic? I just wanna eat and big OP needs to know," she huffed in response to her friend.

"Yeah sorry," Jack began to think and suddenly his optics widened catching Miko's attention.

"What? What's the plan?" Miko asked excitedly and she bounced closer to her friend ready to be briefed.

Optimus said nothing during this and simply watched the exchange between the sparklings with a happy smile on his face, not knowing that they were actually communicating. Oh well, blissful ignorance, right?

"You're not gonna like it and you probably won't do it..." the blue opticed sparkling responded sounding slightly embarrassed.

"Spit it out, dude."

Jack closed his optics and exhaled as he rubbed the back of his metallic neck before crawling onto Optimus' lap beside Miko and grabbed Optimus' index finger and attempted to shove it in his mouth.

The Prime raised an optic at this and Miko looked at her friend with pure disgust, not really knowing what to say or do.

"What is wrong, Jack?" the Prime enquired, genuinely confused at what the sparkling wanted.

"I think the real question is 'what is wrong with you', Jack?" Miko scoffed unimpressed.

"Why don't we get you both something more appropriate to eat, little ones?" Prime gave a small but warm smile.

"Thank me later," the mechling smirked at her.

Miko said nothing as she and her friend were lifted into strong, red arms. She couldn't believe that had actually worked. But oh well, they were going to get fed and then she could probably go dune bashing with Bulkhead or something, so she wasn't complaining in the slightest.

Optimus exited his quarters with the two hungry sparklings and headed towards the main room within their base. Once he arrived, he was met with the sight of Ratchet already feeding Raf whilst everyone else either refuelled or checked the monitors for any signs of Decepticon activity or energon mines.

"Optimus," Ratchet greeted, "there is energon for both of them on the medical berth, they'll be hungry."

"Thank you, old friend."

"Do you want me to take Jack off your hands, I can't imagine it'll be easy feeding both at the same time?" Arcee came over to him.

Optimus didn't have time to answer as Jack instantly reached out to her and squeaked.

"Way to go, Bulk," Miko frowned, "why can't I have the guardian that jumps up at the sight of me?"

Optimus hadn't done anything wrong and she could solidly say she loved the Boss Bot just as much as she loved the rest of the other Autobots. But Bulkhead was infinitely more fun than Optimus, and although she had only been with him throughout the night, she felt she definitely had the right to say she'd had enough of the calm, uniform responses he gave.

Miko and Jack found themselves cradled in their bots' arms and had a bottle of warm sparkling grade energon being fed to them.

"I don't think anything has ever tasted as good as this..." Jack said as he slipped into a daze, "kinda tastes like swiss chocolate but... better!"

"Mhm," Miko couldn't respond properly as she was busy stuffing her face.

"Miko, calm down," Optimus pulled the bottle back, "you will choke if you continue on the way you are."

Miko pulled the bottle back down to her and the Prime couldn't help but smile at the sparkling in his arms. And at that point, Miko knew that he was the good cop in her robot family, he was the type of family member that probably wouldn't bat an eyelid at minor behaviours but would step in for something they deemed more serious. 'Perfect' she thought with a grin.

Said sparkling's grin dropped as she felt a sharp pain go through her back and the bottle was released from her mouth as she let out a cry and began to struggle in Optimus' arms. Jack watched with wide optics and sat up in Arcee's arms, but she quickly calmed him and lay him back down.

Everyone else in the room had their gazes fixed on the struggling sparkling as Optimus bounced her to try and calm her.

"What happened?" Ratchet walked over after passing Raf over to Bumblebee.

"I'm unsure, she seemed fine," replied a confused and concerned Prime, "Bulkhead, please patrol, Bumblebee, give Raf to Arcee and join Bulkhead. Arcee, take the sparklings to your quarters."

They were about to complain but realised their leader was giving sudden orders to try and make the base less crowded and thereby less distressing for the sparkling and everyone that might have to listen to her cries. It also meant Ratchet could focus with no distractions.

Miko began to cry as the pain became sharper, she struggled more and reached for her back to try to ease the pain in anyway. It was burning, it felt like someone was jabbing knives into her spine and it was tingling in the most excruciating way.

Fat tears rolled down her faceplates as she was carried towards the medbay and passed over to Ratchet for examination. He quickly traced the sparkling's motions towards her back and ran his hand down her back gently earning more pained cries.

"I think I know what the problem is," Ratchet gave a small smile.

Optimus looked at his old friend for answers.

"Miko is a seekerling and her wings are beginning to form," he explained as he pointed at two tiny lumps on her back, "these are her wing nubs, the very beginning of what will become wings."

"The humans are certainly full of surprises..." Prime slightly smiled but there was an element of sadness. He watched as Ratchet prepared an anaesthetic to inject into the seekerling.

"Who knew..." Ratchet shook his head with a slight laugh as he held Miko still and attempted to calm her, "Miko this is going to hurt a bit, but I promise you'll feel better afterwards."

Miko went still as the needle was pushed into one of the areas that burned and squeaked in pain as she felt the anaesthetic enter her systems. She slumped as she instantly felt the pain going away and she let out a muffled squeak of thanks. She was once again picked up, cradled and rocked slightly by the Prime and she let out a yawn. All that commotion had taken its toll on her and she happily snuggled into the leader's warm frame.

"Thanks, guys," she squeaked as she closed her optics.

Suddenly, the proximity sensors began blaring around the base and the two older bots winced as Miko's optics shot open and she let out a cry of despair.

"Oh, come on!" she screeched as she threw her little arms up.

Prime passed the seekerling to Ratchet before quickly going to turn off the alarms and check exactly who had set them off. A quick look told Optimus that it was Agent Fowler... and June Darby. His optics widened. Oh, Primus, no.

Arcee came into the main part of the base from her quarters with two irritated sparklings in her arms. Her attention was taken off said sparklings instantly when she realised the two people on the monitor that had set off the alarms and she suddenly felt like she was going to faint.

"What are we gonna do about this?" Arcee asked over the squeaks of the little ones.

"What we must, Arcee," Prime responded emotionless as always.

"If you think we're handing them over then you're out of your mind, Optimus," Ratchet was in shock as he looked at his leader.

"Of course not, Ratchet. I simply suggest that we tell the truth, instead of try to cover up what has happened."

"And what if they decide that they want to take the sparklings from us?" the blue femme snapped.

"We will refuse, and they will come to understand that Cybertronian young cannot be cared for by humans," their leader explained calmly.

If his comrades believed he would give up their young charges, then they were very wrong. It wouldn't prove to be any good for both the sparklings and the humans. Plenty of risks entered Optimus' mind and he was not about to allow even one of those situations to ever exist.

"Right," Arcee gave an unsure look.

The elevator leading to the roof opened and instantly all three sparklings shut up and trained their focus on it.

The three older bots felt uncomfortable as soon as Fowler and June walked into the base. June went ahead and marched right up to the safety railings with a huge scowl on her face and looked Arcee in the optics, not even noticing the sparklings she held.

"Do you happen to know where Jack is?" she asked surprisingly calm for a woman who looked like she was about to kill someone.

"June, I'm sorry but I-" Arcee was cut off by a squeal.

"Ma!" the sparkling version of Jack gave a big happy grin and reached for June.

"Since when did you guys have babies?" Fowler walked towards June as he scratched the top of his head with a raised eyebrow.

The Autobots watched in silence, not knowing what to do as June's eyes narrowed. She looked at the sparkling that had just squealed and looked him over thoroughly.

"That's my son!" she shrieked in horror.

"June, don't be insane, he's probably just been at a slumber party," Fowler tried but the woman was having none of it.

"Agent Fowler, I know my baby when I see him," she growled, "and I'm guessing that's Raf next to him, and Miko is with Ratchet."

"Nurse Darby, I'm sorry..." Ratchet looked the woman in the eyes as she crossed her arms, "that is indeed Jack."

The woman shook her head angrily and literally looked like she was about to blow up at the Autobots. She had every right to, that was her son and his two friends whom she was also very protective of.

Optimus looked at her with soft optics, "June-"

"How could you let this happen, Optimus? As I'd told you before, they're children and they don't belong in your world. I should never have let them stay here, as much as they love you, this has gone too far," she was almost in tears at this point, "you promised you would protect these children, and now they're not human anymore. Do they even know what's happening? Is there a cure?"

The poor woman was looking at the floor as she tried to steady herself. Optimus looked at her sadly.

"June, maybe you should take a seat," Fowler offered as he took hold of her arm gently guiding her in the direction of the sofa.

"No thank you, I've seen and said all I needed to," she said sharply as she tugged her arm out of Fowler's grip and headed to the elevator, "I'll be waiting outside for you."

"Ma?" Jack squeaked sadly as he watched his mother turn her back on him.

Arcee gave him a soothing smile and gently bounced him in her arms.

"It's okay, Jack, she'll come back when she's ready to," she comforted.

Everyone fell silent as they watched her exit through the elevator, and once she was out of sight, Fowler spoke up.

"Prime, this is ridiculous," he ran a hand down his face, "are these babies really Jack, Miko and Rafael?"

"I'm afraid so, Agent Fowler," Optimus replied.

"How did this happen?" he asked harshly making the sparklings squeak in fright.

"Unfortunately, we haven't reached a conclusion just yet," came an answer from the medic.

Ratchet shifted Miko in his arms so she could properly see Agent Fowler.

"Miko?" Fowler sighed, "I've gotta admit these robot kids are cute, but they shouldn't be robot kids... What do I tell their parents? June will get through this and will come to accept things, but I can't leave the other parents in the dark. They're looking for their kids and they need an answer as soon as."

"Say we're on a school trip, dude!" Miko shouted to him as if he were dumb for not thinking of it.

"That'd be a weird school trip if the school never mentioned anything to our parents..."

"Raf's right..." Jack sighed completely exhausted and the day had only just begun.

Fowler spared a smile in the direction of the babbling sparklings as Optimus spoke up.

"Agent Fowler, we are perfectly capable of looking after the children, after all they are currently Cybertronian young and it wouldn't be beneficial to the sparklings if they were to be removed from our care. I believe our best cover for this situation is to inform General Bryce of the real situation and a false one so he may speak to the parents directly and update them with the false situation. An idea of a false situation might entail what was thought to be a harmless prank gone too far and thus requiring their containment by the government," Prime explained.

"As if they weren't already doing something similar to that," Arcee snorted.

Fowler, yet again, ran his hand down his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. The man was already stressed and this on top made the man want to get into bed and never come out.

"Look after them... I'll be checking up on them soon, and I'm sure June will too."

He walked towards the elevator as Optimus nodded in acknowledgement. Ratchet and Arcee both gave groans and sighs signalling their views on the situation at hand. Whilst Optimus spoke to them about the possible meetings that would take place with other officials and most likely General Bryce, the sparklings had other things to deal with.

Raf looked on and his optics glazed over with fresh tears, "I forgot about our parents, god I feel like such an idiot! How could I forget about Mama?!"

Arcee bounced Raf as he whimpered whilst Jack and Miko watched their friend in surprise at his sudden outburst but deemed the situation to be completely appropriate for him to be acting that way.

Miko turned to him with her optics shining bright with a smile lighting up her face even more, "Dude, don't worry! Ms Darby is just worried, if anything it just shows us why Jack is the way he is," she laughed getting a giggle out of her younger friend.

"Yeah, I guess mom did rub off on me in that sense," Jack chuckled, "but seriously, Raf, don't worry. The bots will get us back to our normal selves in no time!"

Raf gave a small smile towards his friends as they reassured him, and he couldn't help but be thankful. He turned over to Miko when he saw her practically ready to jump out of Ratchet's arms.

"Yup exactly that! Look at it this way, we don't have school!" she wiggled around happily with a big grin.

"I guess..." he grinned back.

Ratchet was trying to listen to what Optimus was saying to him, but he honestly couldn't with the bouncing armful of excited seekerling threatening to fall from his grip.

"Miko, settle down," he suddenly barked as he tightened his hold on said sparkling.

Stare.

The seekerling suddenly let out a squeal of amusement and was practically in tears as she laughed at the poor medic, it had clicked in the girl's mind that now she could annoy Ratchet in a completely new way! Not just that but what could he honestly do to a sparkling? It's not like he could do anything to-

Her laughter ceased and her entire form took on a state of shock as Ratchet tapped the centre of her faceplates. Optimus stroked the sparkling's tiny wing nubs to try and ease the edge off of what Ratchet had just done to her, but he did find it amusing. No one had ever managed to shut Miko up that quickly.

Arcee couldn't help but look on with a laugh, "Ratchet that was a bit harsh, why don't you bring her over here and they can all play for a bit? They've probably had enough of being held," to which she got a nod from Ratchet.

"How about we move these energon cubes and form a little barrier that they can stay in?"

"No! Why would they try to take away our freedom like that... we're gonna be in robot baby jail," she crossed her arms, sat up as straight as her body would allow her and put on her best Optimus voice, "'freedom is the right of all sentient beings', ach, whatever big OP."

Raf and Jack couldn't help but laugh at her weak impression of the Prime. Said Prime's attention was caught by the giggling and the squeals coming from Miko, he shook his helm slightly as he continued moving energon storage containers into an organised space that allowed the sparklings plenty of room to play.

The trio looked awkward as they were then placed in their "play pen".

"Now what?" Jack asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Raf looked up at the three older bots and saw they were all staring, "I think they expect us to do something?"

"Well they better get over themselves because we're not circus performers," the seekerling snapped.

"What's wrong Miko, you're upset because Ratchet isn't giving you any more cuddles, aren't you?" Arcee cooed at her making all three sparklings scowl.

"Lord have mercy on me," Miko closed her eyes and allowed herself to flop backwards and starfish on the floor.

Ratchet began walking towards all of his tools, "I do actually have something that they can have whilst I construct more things for them."

"You're sure they won't choke?" Arcee placed a hand on her hip as she watched the medic walk off.

He rolled his optics, "Arcee, I'm a doctor, why would I ever want to give myself more patients?"

Arcee and Optimus looked back down at the babbling sparklings and wondered what on Earth they could be saying.

"I wonder what Ratchet has hidden in all of his tools if he has something for us? You'd think a guy like that knows how to hide stuff right?" Raf asked, going out of his way to start a little conspiracy theory.

"Now that I think about it, that is true. He could be hiding other humans as much as he says he dislikes us," Jack laughed but his smile then dropped, "but then again that's kidnapping..."

"Imagine Ratchet actually kidnapping someone though, I can totally see that. Dude is probably a freak," Miko added on.

When Ratchet walked back to the play pen, he noticed that all three sparklings were watching him intently, so he smiled and offered them a soccer ball that he'd taken off Miko when she decided it'd be fun to kick it around base and knock over something he needed.

"Catch!" he smiled as he threw it in to them.

"Woah!" Raf was knocked over as the ball hit him directly in the face, "that hurt!" he shouted angrily. The medic walked over and sat the sparkling back up, knowing that he was too young to do it himself.

"Are you sure you don't want a patient?" came a quip from the Prime.

The medic spared a look at the sparkling he'd hit and then walked to a computer terminal as he mumbled to himself about lack of respect, from a Prime nonetheless.

Jack crawled over to the ball and held it in his little hands and sighed, "I can't lie, I already miss being around other humans."

"It's been a day, but okay, Mr. Dramatic," Miko scoffed as she gestured for him to throw the ball to her.

"I know, but I could be helping my mom out," he rolled the ball as he found himself incapable of throwing it.

"And he can't make any moves with Sierra!" Raf chirped.

"Right!" Miko poked the ball in front of her, not really finding it interesting. None of them were capable of much movement, so this was a dead game, "what can we do? I'm so bored..."

"Didn't Ratchet say you're a flier?" Raf asked with a tilt of his little helm.

"Yeah, why?"

"Why don't we try and see if you can fly?" the smallest of the bunch was visibly excited for his friend.

"I don't think that's how it works, Raf. Miko can't even walk yet..."

"Don't be such a pessimist, Jack," Miko rolled her optics as she crawled over to the side and pulled herself up and balanced against the energon cubes that were keeping them contained, "just gotta focus?"

Jack and Raf found themselves looking at Miko with raised eyebrows as she suddenly began tensing as if she was constipated.

"I don't think that's it..." Raf said awkwardly.

"You don't say."

Jack closed his optics briefly as he thought of something fun that they could do. The bots were clearly busy, they were at war after all and they had been put in this contained area for a reason. Obviously the sparklings had been left to entertain themselves.

Jack and Miko watched with bored expressions as Raf took the ball from Miko and began to bounce it up and down with his hands.

If this was how much fun they'd be having during their time as sparklings, this was going to be frustrating. However, they failed to notice Ratchet watching Raf with keen optics, apparently Raf was still smart as a sparkling.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee had just returned from his patrol after he'd convinced Bulkhead that he needed to go and talk to Optimus about something important. And now said bot was pressing Optimus on a matter that was slightly annoying him. Just slightly.

"Hey, Optimus. How come you gave Raf to Ratchet last night? I could've looked after him?" he buzzed at his leader.

"I believe it is better that the sparklings be in the care of older Cybertronians. You are still young, Bumblebee, and have much to learn," Optimus rumbled calmly.

"Right..." Bumblebee battled with himself to stop his next comment from coming out but honestly he couldn't, "yet I'm old enough to fight a war, right?"

And with that, Bumblebee rolled his optics and walked away from the Prime, leaving said Prime with his eyebrows raised and optics wide.

"I do not appreciate your tone, Bumblebee," he frowned.

"I just wanna be there for my best friend, but you guys don't even seem to trust me with holding the little guy or anything," he scoffed, "wasn't he more delicate as a human?"

"And you can be here for him, you just won't have full guardianship of him."

Bumblebee's doorwings began to shake with anger and he turned to glare at his leader,

"Oh? So, Ratchet's his guardian now? Cool."

"We are thinking of what is best for the sparklings, not trying to keep you away from them," Prime tried to reassure the frustrated young bot but didn't manage to withold the stern tone.

"By keeping me away from the sparklings?" the scout turned away from Prime, "You're so full of it," he transformed and prepared to speed out of the base.

"Oooooooooh, drama!" Miko squeaked as her and her friends looked on in interest.

"Bumblebee's fighting Optimus for you, Raf," Jack smiled, "that's kinda cute."

Jack's smile was wiped off of his face, however, as when he turned to look at his younger friend, he found that said younger friend had tears streaming down his face and was preparing to let out a loud agitated cry. Both Jack and Miko looked on with wide optics, completely speechless as his wails began, thus drawing the attention of the two arguing bots.

Bumblebee transformed back to his bipedal mode and went to pick up Raf but Optimus beat him to it, picking up the distressed sparkling and rocking him to try and get him to calm down.

The scout rolled his optics and transformed to leave the base.

"Bumblebee!" Optimus called after him firmly.

Raf squealed and reached for his guardian as he watched him drive away with more tears streaming down his little faceplates.

Optimus should have known that Bumblebee would be upset, but the scout needed to know that he was too young to be caring for a sparkling.

"And when exactly did I agree to becoming Raf's new guardian?" Ratchet asked over the noise as he continued typing on the monitor not bothering to turn and face Optimus.

"Old friend, surely you must-"

"Of course, I understand," Ratchet interrupted, "I'll monitor Bumblebee's signal later, but for now I'll leave him to cool off."

"What is wrong, Rafael?" Optimus wondered as he looked down at the distraught sparkling in his arms.

"Yeah, what is wrong?" Jack chirped worriedly to his friend.

"I don't know," Raf squealed angrily.

"Raf, hey it's okay," Miko tried with a sad smile. It was concerning watching the smallest of them go into a panicked frenzy.

The medic walked over to where his leader was stood and plucked Raf out of his arms.

"Where are you taking him?"

"I have a few activities planned for him," Ratchet smiled whilst Raf ceased his crying in favour of looking up at his new caretaker with a confused frown.

Optimus gave him a nod of acknowledgment and the old medic walked in the direction of one of the many empty rooms within the silo. He'd need peace and quiet to conduct his little educational tests on the sparkling currently in his arms.

"Jack," Miko called and continued once Jack was facing her, "do you think we could end up acting more like sparklings the longer we remain as sparklings?"

Jack knew what she was getting at. Raf had acted extremely out of character at that moment and he couldn't help but draw the same conclusion as his Japanese friend. What if they did regress?

Jack smiled to calm his friend, not letting on his own concerns, "No, Miko. I think Raf is just stressed and tired, he'll be fine."

Miko opened her mouth to respond but was prevented when Arcee approached them.

"In that case, I think I'm gonna go teach Jack a few things too, this sparkling really kept his habit of bottling things. I can tell how stressed he is just by looking at him," Arcee rolled her optics as she picked her charge up and out of the pen area and walked off to her quarters.

"That just leaves us two then, Miko," Prime said softly with a small smile as the seekerling squeaked at him in interest as she blew a spit bubble.

"So, what're we gonna do then, Boss Bot?" she beamed.

Miko screwed her face up in despair when Optimus merely picked her up, snuggled her into the crook of one of his big, red arms and walked up to a computer terminal to begin typing with his free hand.

"Ah man..." she groaned, "I want Bulk," she let herself droop in the Prime's arms and watched the screen with bored optics.

Ratchet had taken Raf into a training room, he would've taken the sparkling back to his room, but he needed more open floor space for the activities he'd planned. The old bot had seen the way Raf had managed to somehow coordinate his arms and bounce the ball despite not yet having the ability to even crawl.

The sparkling was gently set down on the floor of the training room, and Ratchet smiled as he unpacked some coloured shapes and put them in front of Raf.

"Now, Raf, you have to pair the shapes together like this," Ratchet demonstrated by pairing two blue squares together.

"Oh, Ratchet... if only you knew that Jack, Miko and I are basically the same," Raf sighed. He felt bad for the medic as he knew that the mech was keen on new research topics, and he seemed to think that he'd found a point of focus.

Raf looked over the shapes in front of him and tried to look alert and focused instead of bored out of his mind. He decided it would be a good idea to just get this out of the way and quickly matched all the shapes according to their shape and colour.

Ratchet looked on in awe before pushing the shapes to the side and placing down card-type items that had images on them. He ordered them all in a grid like fashion and demonstrated to Raf that this activity entailed memorising which card had which image on it so it could then be matched with another card with the same image.

And in a matter of minutes, Raf had finished this second activity, he turned to look at Ratchet as if asking if he had any more activities for him to complete.

"Well, Rafael. You're a genius as a human child and as a Cybertronian sparkling..." Ratchet chuckled slightly as he shook his helm.

Raf huffed slightly, "Sooooo, that's it?"

Ratchet made Raf eat his words, however, as he pulled out a box that had been near the "human kids' area" and his little optics widened when he saw it. It was the dreaded 10,000-piece puzzle that June had bought for them to complete as a way to keep them inside the base and away from hanging out with their guardians. Of course, they'd smiled and nodded when she'd asked if they had managed to complete it.

Raf felt like this was karma for lying, now he didn't even have the help of Jack and Miko. Ratchet expected him to do this all by himself while he was stuck in the form of a robot baby. It was going to be a long day and with that he stuck a thumb in his mouth to aid in his concentration.

"Okay, Jack, I don't wanna sound like your mom..."

Jack felt there was a "but" coming.

"But," there it was, "you're such a negative little mech sometimes, and this time someone can actually teach you how to deal with things more successfully," Arcee had to admit she felt awkward saying this to her sparkling charge.

Jacked huffed annoyed, "I get where you're coming from, Arcee, but try tell that to anxiety," he muttered.

"I know you try to take responsibility for the safety of you, Miko and Raf, and you just want to be strong for them, but sometimes we all need to just calm down," the two-wheeler smiled softly.

Jack didn't look impressed. Yes, he did try too hard. And yes, it was stressful trying to maintain a strong persona all the time, but he managed. Kind of.

Anyway, the mechling was horrified when Arcee pulled out a metal teddy bear looking thing and showed him it. Curiously, the sparkling reached out and took the figurine from his guardian and then looked at Arcee curiously.

"It was a present from Tailgate back on Cybertron," she smiled sadly, "He salvaged it from who knows where and gave it to me. But now, I guess this is yours."

Jack didn't know what to say. Part of him was flattered that his guardian would give him something so precious. But then he was also slightly annoyed that Arcee seemed to think there needed to be some form of intervention for him and his coping strategies.

"Thanks, Arcee," he squeaked and reached up for her.

"You sound super cute when you babble like that," she said as she picked him up and held him close to her chest.

It was later on in the evening and the three sparklings had remained with their (new) guardians. Arcee and Ratchet had managed to handle their charges very easily, but Optimus managed to upset Miko.

She had been watching him work from her position cradled in one of his arms, when she decided to stretch out.

"Yo, Optimus, can we go do something else? I'm bored," she groaned as she felt her little wing nubs twitch.

In response, Optimus just cradled her closer to his chest and she let a monumental frown etch onto her face. She began to struggle against him more, she'd been here for hours so if anything, the boss bot was lucky that she had stayed put all that time.

"Miko, what is wrong?" Prime enquired as he looked at the sparkling that now looked up at him with a frustrated expression.

"I wanna do something fun!" she snapped as she kicked her legs out, "I've been in your boring arms all day, watching you do your boring work, and even when Bulk came back from patrol you didn't let me go with him!"

Optimus raised an eyebrow at the little femme and her outburst. He went to move her so he could hold her upright and against his chest but during this movement, he accidentally stubbed one of her wing nubs. His optics widened instantly as the seekerling let out a squeak, instantly realising what he had just done.

Everything was a blur for Miko at this point. Optimus had tried to comfort her as she started crying but if anything, she just got louder and more agitated. The Prime felt an unbelievable amount of relief when he saw Ratchet came running into the room with Raf in his arms.

"What happened to her?" the medic demanded as he took Miko out of the Prime's arms and replaced her with Raf.

"I caught one of her wing nubs by accident," Optimus said guiltily, and Ratchet rolled his optics amused.

"If they're this sensitive then she probably needed to have them numbed again," Ratchet informed the Prime as he went about preparing an anaesthetic.

And soon enough, Miko was held against a medical berth as a needle was pressed into her wings. She struggled slightly with a little groan of pain but then felt her back cool down and instant relief passed through her body.

She remembered seeing Raf in Ratchets arms, speaking to her but she couldn't make out what he was saying. Prime had picked her up as she tried to blink away her tiredness but the addition of the warmth from Prime's frame blurred her vision even more.

"Woah that injection really messed me up," she yawned as she let her optics close.

Miko suddenly sat up and blinked as she tried to take in the things around her, but she couldn't because she had found herself in a dark room. Her optics slowly adjusted, and she could make out that she had been nestled into Optimus' side as he recharged.

"So, I'm back in Boss Bot's room, huh?" she rolled her optics.

She had to admit it; she felt kind of guilty that she found the Prime so boring. He'd been nothing but kind and loving towards her even when she had been human. But currently, she was feeling very petty that he had kept her cooped up with him all day and then he'd had the audacity to poke her wing before she'd fallen asleep!

"Revenge it is!" she declared as she crawled to the edge of the berth and looked at the distance between it and the floor, "Eh, shouldn't be too bad."

The seekerling let herself drop from the berth legs first and landed in a pathetic heap on the floor with an "oof". She shook her head slightly and then proceeded to crawl towards the conveniently open door and wandered out into the dimly lit corridors of the base.

She crawled towards the main room thinking she would find something fun to do in there, after all, there was a TV, a games console and some speakers to play music on. A grin came to her face as she thought of how she could chill as if she were human again.

"Heh, that's not something I thought I'd ever be thinking..." she smirked, "I'm sure being Cybertronian is cool if you're on Cybertron, but jeesh Earth sucks for these guys."

Miko suddenly froze and she felt her little wing nubs twitch nervously as she heard someone's footsteps around the corner and coming in this direction.

"Scrap!" she huffed to herself and began to look around for somewhere to hide.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough, and she felt two hands pick her up carefully.

"Hey, Miko, what're you doing out here? Shouldn't Optimus be looking after you?" Bee buzzed smarmily. So apparently Prime was more capable than him when it came to sparklings. Right.

"Hey, Bumblebee!" she smiled at him, "Umm I was just looking around for something fun to do!"

Bumblebee nodded with a warm look on his face as she squeaked and babbled at him. Miko knew full well he couldn't understand but at least he was acting like he understood, unlike Optimus who just smiled and moved on with life.

"Uh huh, what else?" he asked happily.

"Dora the Explorer much?" she giggled, "Seriously, Bee, being with OP all day was really boring and I just wanna listen to music or something, so could you let me down?" she pointed to the floor and then looked back up at him with puppy eyes.

Bumblebee didn't let her down, nor did he take her back to Optimus. The yellow scout smirked and then began walking in the direction of one of the many storage rooms on base.

"I have an idea, Miko. Do you like painting?" he smirked.

"Yeah, it's alright I guess," now she was interested. What did the scout have in mind? The seekerling thought that if he got on well with Raf then it meant that he had to be as much as a goody two shoes as Raf right? Apparently not.

Bumblebee remained silent as he walked with the sparkling in his arms until they got to the desired storage room. Miko found herself put down on the floor as the older bot began shuffling through the many items stored in the room. She looked on patiently and curiously and then her optics lit up as she saw the scout pull out what looked to be a large can of pink paint.

"What do you say we show Optimus how good you are at art?" she could practically feel the mischief coming off him in waves and a huge grin came to her face as she voiced her support.

"But wait, just me?" she gestured towards herself and Bumblebee had managed to grasp what she meant.

"Well, if I do it, I'll be punished. If you do it, the most you'll get is a tap on the head from Ratchet," Bee explained.

"Honestly, I was game either way!" she shrilled excitedly.