Transformers Prime: A Sparkling Issue

Wednesday morning...

There wasn't much that could grind on Optimus's nerve circuits.

With his nearly limitless patience and tolerant nature it was practically impossible to do. His years as a Prime (and even before that) had shown this time and time again. It took something of vast or intense proportions to simply get him to raise his voice, and even then it was to normally drive a central point home. Ratchet was witness to this fact, having known the mech the longest of the group, and he could count on one servo the amount of times he had seen his larger friend become truly frustrated or irritated at anyone or anything. It was simply the Prime's character and life code: to always be kind and gentle, and have patience with any and all situations that may come.

But recently Optimus had discovered a curse unlike any he had ever encountered.

It had started the day before, after Bumblebee's itching problem had been solved and late evening was coming on...

...

It was nearing the children's curfew when they would have to return home and they were squeezing every second of play time in with the sparklings that they could. The Prime was continuing his work, trying to finish up a few scans, as once he was on full-time botsitting duty, it would be hit and miss the rest of the night.

Arcee had left her coloring to play with her rocks. Bumblebee and Ratchet still scribbled with their markers, Jack and Rafael watching while Bulkhead played inside one of the tires with his new stuffed teddy (it had basically become official that he was not going to put it down any time soon). Miko was sitting on the edge of the tire, heels bumping the rubbed tread as she swung her legs, having whole one-sided conversations with the green sparkling. A rattling, that had been continuing on and off for a while, finally caught her attention enough to make her over.

The blue femme was going through a type of cycle playing with her rocks. She would put them all into the container while it lay on its side and then give it a push. It would roll away with a clickity-clattering as the rocks tumbled around inside and Arcee would giggle in delight at the noise. But because the end was open it was short-lived joy as the rocks would fall out and, with a frustrated whirr, Arcee would put them all back in again.

This process circled several times before Miko's eyes lit up with an idea. She ran up to Optimus. "Hey, Optimus! Did that container thingy you gave Arcee have a lid? It must've had one, right?"

The mech turned from the computer to look down at the small human far below. "Affirmative. It used to hold different earth specimens of Ratchet's."

"Can I have it?"

With a simple nod, Optimus retrieved it from where it had been left on the workspace and brought it. He handed it down, though compared to the slim girl, the lid was rather large. Miko took with a grunt.

"Thanks!" She awkwardly carried it over to where Arcee played. "Here Arcee! This might help."

Arcee watched with curious optics as Miko up-righted the container and put all the smaller rocks inside, leaving out a few of the biggest ones for them to still play with. She hoisted the lid on top, but found she needed a stronger pair of arms to screw it on.

"Hey Jack, can you help me screw this on?"

"Sure." Jack pushed himself up from kneeling beside Ratchet and assisted the Japanese girl. This time it went into place. "Why did you want to put the lid on anyway?" he asked curiously.

Miko grinned. "Watch." With a few heaves, she pushed it over to Arcee and stood next to her creation proudly. "There you go, Arcee! You're very own baby rattle!"