Little [Transformers Prime]

Little

Early the next morning, around five o'clock, Smokescreen woke up to a weird sound. Still about half asleep, all he registered was a series of buzzes and beeps going higher and lower in an almost siren like pattern. After about a minute, his processor finally woke up enough to recognize it as Bumblebee's...'voice'. But, he'd never heard Bee sound like this...
Curious, Smokescreen got up and walked over to Bee's door, where he could make out the sounds much clearer. It almost sounded like...crying!
'Why would Bee be crying?' He thought to himself, feeling a little worried, and knocked on the door. "Bee? You okay?" The only response was an increase in the crying sounds, so Smokescreen opened the door slowly and instantly gasped and stepped back when he saw Bumblebee. Not really knowing what else to do, and running kind of on instinct at the moment, he closed the door and rushed over to the nearest door that wasn't his. It turned out to be Arcee's, and he knocked on it insistently until she finally got up and opened it.
"What is it, Smokes?" She asked tiredly. "It's barely five A.M."
"I know, but it's Bee."
"What about him?" Arcee demanded, suddenly very interested. "Is everything alright?"
"No, it's really not, come see!" He said, pulling her over to Bee's door and opening it. Arcee gasped and covered her mouth with her hands upon seeing him. "He's little-!"
"He's not just little, Smokescreen," Arcee whispered, walking into the room and getting a closer look at him. "He's a sparkling!"
"What?! How is that possible?"
"I don't know," Arcee told him as she knelt down next to her tiny comrade. "Go get Ratchet. Now."
"Right!"

Bumblebee looked up at the giants in front of him, tears of coolant still pouring down his face and blurring his vision. He watched the smaller blue feeme come over and get down closer to his level, looking very serious, and then the bigger blue mech nodded and left. Bee turned his attention to the feeme next to him, still crying loudly.
"Oh, don't cry, Bee," she said softly, a small smile on her face. He reached out for her and she picked him up, holding the crying sparkling close to comfort him. "It's okay, you're okay, you don't need to cry, it's okay." Slowly, Bumblebee started to calm down and stop crying, now just kind of whimpering in her arms, just in time for Smokescreen and an extremely shocked Ratchet to walk in. Something clicked when Bee saw the old medic, and he reached for him insistently. Reluctantly, Arcee handed him over to Ratchet, who cradled the child in his arms and scanned him.

"How is this possible," Ratchet wondered, completing the scan as he walked out into the medbay. "It doesn't read anything wrong with him!" Bumblebee kicked and squirmed, now reaching for the floor, where a small tool lay at Ratchet's feet. He bent down and picked it up, examining it to make sure it was safe before handing it to the squirming Bumblebee, who laughed and immediately put it in his mouth.
"Hey, don't eat that!" Ratchet chuckled quietly and pulled it out. Bumblebee didn't seem bothered by that, and instead started hitting, or more like tapping it against Ratchet's chest. This time Ratchet simply took it out of his hands. "No hitting either." Instantly, Bee burst out in tears, kicking and squirming and reaching for the tool. Ratchet sighed and looked around for something to pacify the child, and found a small cube of energon. He walked over and picked it up, holding it away from the still sobbing sparkling, and continued to look around until he found a piece of scrap metal that was like a small stick, and stuck the energon on the end of it. An energon-pop.
"Here you go," he said as he stuck it in Bumblebee's mouth. Instantly, Bee stopped crying and instead was sucking happily on the energon-pop, just as Smokescreen and Arcee walked over, accompanied by the other Autobots.
"By the Allspark..." Optimus marveled as he saw the tiny bot. Bumblebee laughed when the others entered his line of sight, and actually reached for the Prime, who tentatively took him from his medic. "Ratchet, how is this possible?"
"Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea," Ratchet sighed, watching the sparkling giggle and kick quietly in Optimus' arms, seeming very content. "But I think he likes you, Optimus."
Optimus blinked in surprise at the comment and looked down at Bumblebee, who looked up at him. The child was silent for a second, just staring up at the Prime, until a large grin broke across his tiny face and he burst out laughing again. Optimus felt absolutely shocked by this; Bumblebee had never acted in anyway that would suggest he felt like this before, why was he now? He'd always been so attached to Ratchet...
"Um, can I see him?" Bulkhead asked carefully. Optimus nodded and gently handed Bee over to the large Autobot. "Hey there, little buddy." Bumblebee laughed. "He sure is a happy kid."
"Well, I'm glad he is this time," Ratchet said quietly as he turned to his computer to search through the files to see if anything like this had ever somehow happened before in history.
"This time?" Smokescreen echoed, confused. "What do you mean, Ratch?"
The old medic sighed and turned back to the others. "I mean I'm glad he has a positive childhood this time around."
"But what would you know about Bee's childhood?" Smokescreen frowned, now very confused.
Ratchet sighed again. "I raised him, that's how."