{DISCONTINUED} The World From a Different Point of View

Long Nights Pt.2

Optimus was woken yet again by the high pitched crying of a sparkling. For a second he almost panicked when he realised that this sparkling could wake the others but when he noticed that Miko was sprawled across his face plates and Jack was hugging his neck he calmed seeing that they were conked out. As those two were still asleep it meant that it was Raf that was crying.

Carefully, the Prime pulled Miko off of his face and Jack off of his neck and placed them next to him on the berth. He then picked Raf off of his chest and cradled him comfortably in his arms as he stood up and began to stroll up and down the room. He rocked Raf, he hummed to him and began bouncing him a little bit but non of his efforts were working as he noticed Raf only seemed to wriggle around even more and cry louder.

Optimus decided that in order to keep the other two sparklings asleep he would have to take Raf on a walk around the base. He opened the door with a still crying and whimpering Raf held in his strong arms.

"What is the matter, Rafael?" Optimus asked tiredly as he stroked the sparkling.

Raf's crying was now reduced to small whimpers and hiccups as he began babbling and chirping at the Prime. Optimus could only stare at him as he had absolutely no idea what the sparkling was trying to say to him.

"I'm hungry!" Raf was now becoming annoyed as he realised that Optimus couldn't understand a word he was saying. He would have to show him instead...

Optimus looked slightly dazed when Raf began reaching for the ground and attempted to jump out of his arms numerous times.

"What is it you would like?" He almost groaned.

Raf continued trying to climb out of Optimus' arms with his newfound energy and eventually Optimus got the hint that he wanted to be put onto the ground.

The young sparkling chirped with joy as he stood up... And then fell back down onto his little aft. He immediately began reaching for Optimus to help keep him steady.

Optimus was on his knees holding the tiny sparkling's hand as he was led towards the main room and towards the sparkling supplies. Optimus had to admit, it was insanely cute how Raf had wanted to try and walk here by himself even if it meant that he was scuffling around on his knees. Raf let go of Optimus' finger that he had been holding onto and held onto the crate as he pointed at the little sparkling bottles.

"I see..." Optimus finally understood and was slightly confused that Raf had taken him back here without batting an optic. Were the children still in there or had Raf just retained his abnormal intelligence?

The tiny sparkling was once again picked up by Optimus as he began to make up the sparkling formula for Raf. Once he was done he pressed the nub of the bottle to Raf's mouth and was relieved when the sparkling wasted no time and latched on, beginning to suckle.

Raf's hands came up to grip the bottle but one of his hands ended up grabbing onto Optimus' hand as if it was a comforting feature.

The red and blue mech shifted Raf so he was cradled to his chest in a more comfortable way and allowed a small smile to show on his lips as he felt a light pattering of feet against his chest.

The small smile grew when he saw that Raf's suckling was slowing down rapidly and his optics were drooping. He carefully pulled the bottle from his mouth, grabbed a rag, positioned the sparkling so he held him against his shoulder and then began to lightly pat his back to help the sparkling rid of any unwanted fluids. Surely enough the sparkling coughed up a little bit of waste fluids and Optimus caught it in the rag. Once he had disposed of the rag he looked back at Raf who had fallen asleep against his shoulder.

Optimus looked over at the sparkling supplies and then back at Raf.

"There's never a problem with checking" he told himself and lifted the sparkling to his face to check if he could smell any waste. If there was another tank to change he'd rather do it when the sparkling was asleep rather than kicking and screaming at him.

Optimus realised that no waste now definitely meant waste later. He sigh and once again cradled Rad in his arms and turned in the direction of his quarters.

/-\

Optimus returned to his quarters ready to go back to recharge but when he opened the door he did not expect what consumed his sight.

Miko and Jack were wide awake with a pot of 'Shiny Parts' grease. Somehow their little hands had managed to get the pot open and they had smeared the grease everywhere. Over themselves, over the berth and had even thought that it was a fine thing to eat.

Optimus mentally kicked himself for leaving the sparklings alone. Alone when they were able to reach something as messy as grease.

The Prime thought that after he had dealt with Raf then he could have gone back to recharge. But now he had two grease covered sparklings, a berth coated in grease and nowhere to put the sleeping sparkling he held. Scrap.

Optimus was just about to start thinking of ways to get his berth clean when he saw Miko shovelling some of the grease into her mouth.

"No, Miko. That is not for eating, it will make you sick" he tried his best to grab Miko with his only free arm but the sparkling scuttled away cheekily.

Optimus almost growled but he didn't want to scare the sparklings so he kept it back. He looked up and saw his desk, he walked over to it and put Raf down on it with a blanket over him. As soon as he'd done that he turned around slowly to look at the sparklings who had froze in their actions as if they knew what was coming.

Optimus quickly walked over to them before they could begin crawling away and picked the both up in his arms and kept a good grip as they wiggled around. They began squeaking and chirping at him... Then he heard a sniffle... Uh oh.

He had just gotten Raf to sleep... Ah scrap. Frag it, he'll face the old medic.

::Ratchet, again I am sorry to awaken you but I need you to look after Rafael for the rest of the recharge cycle::

::Ugh... Just bring him here::

::Thank you, old friend::

Optimus looked at the two grease covered sparklings he held and decided that there would be no harm in putting them back on the berth. Optimus then picked up Raf and quickly made his way to Ratchet's room. He knocked on the door and was greeted by a tired looking Ratchet.

"I will be asking questions later" the medic panned before taking the sparkling and shutting the door in the Prime's face.

With that, Optimus practically sprinted back to his quarters to see that the sparklings were rolling around in the grease and giggling.

"Alright you two, bath time" Optimus almost moaned tiredly as he scooped Jack and Miko up before they could crawl away.

Optimus walked through a door in his quarters that led to a private bathroom. He started running water into the bath as he made sure it was the right temperature and that it wasn't too deep.

Once that was complete he placed both the sparklings in and began to gently scrub the grease off of their plating. The nice movements from Optimus was making both the sparklings feel tired as they felt insanely relaxed and soon enough Optimus was holding them up in the bath tub as he washed them. He sighed with relief at how easily they had gone into recharge and continued washing them.

After their bath he wrapped them both in towels to dry them off and then placed them on his desk as he started on cleaning his berth. His berth was only going to be able to be cleaned a certain amount by hand. Optimus knew well that he'd have to leave the rest to react with a solution which would take a few Earth hours.

The solution was put onto the berth and Optimus realised he now had nowhere to sleep... Actually...

/-\

A few hours later, Optimus was recharging in the Medbay on the medberth with the slumbering forms of the sparkling version of Jack and Miko.

All were content and were getting the recharge they surely needed after a tiring night.