Work Text:
Hot Rod’s optics online, he sits up in his berth, the thick insulation blanket slides off his frame. He shivers when the cold air hits his tiny body. His twin sister lay in another berth across the room, but unlike him, she is deep in her recharge cycle, her chest rising and falling in even breaths.
His spark pulses excitedly. Today was a special orn, today was the orn they didn’t have to go to the education center. It was a holiday and everyone had the orn off.
Hot Rod pushes the heavy blanket off the rest of his body and slides out of his berth. His pedes clunk against the floor as he drops down.
He looks at the small dark space under his berth. A couple of months ago he had woken his parents at un-primus-ly jours in the morning because he swore he had heard noises under there. He had been convinced there was a monster under there that was going to eat him.
Originally Arcee had scoffed at him telling him to stop being such a sparkling about it. She was probably just mad for waking her up with his calls for his parents.
He had freaked out so much that Arcee had begun to believe him too. For almost a week they had stayed in Hot Rod’s berth refusing to sleep alone, as much as his parents had tried to convince them that everything was fine and nothing was going to harm them they were convinced.
Eventually, his parents just gave up altogether and let them share a berth, there was no harm in it, right?
They had worked up to loud noise in the middle of the night after Hot Rod’s pede had kicked something hard. They had clung to each other and cried so loudly their parents had burst into their room trying to figure out what the problem was.
As it turns out there was something under his berth. It was his toy car he had stuffed under her berth as the noises he had been hearing were the car activating every time his pede kicked the controller.
He had felt really silly when his parents had fished the tiny toy car out from under his berth, his carrier almost had a conniption right where she stood, it had taken a couple of kliks of his sire’s gentle voice to convince his carrier to calm down.
Arcee was not calm by any means and Hot Rod had received a swift (and maybe rightfully deserve) punch to his arm.
He looks over at the small digital clock that sits at the top of his shelf. The small, glowing green numbers read 0630. Which is the normal time he is woken by his parents before they take him to the education center.
The little red and golden sparkling wanders over to his sister’s berth and clambers up pulling on the sheets as ropes to haul his body up. Arcee groans as the blanket is pulled off of her as a result of Hot Rod’s climbing.
“This better not be another monster thing,” Arcee growls sleepily grabbing some of the inoculation sheets and trying the best she can to pull the woven metal back over her frame.
“We gotta get up!” Hot Rod whispers excitedly.
“No, it’s too early, frag off.” Arcee says.
“Mamma says not to say those kinds of words.” Hot Rod says teasingly. The first time they had heard their carrier say that word they both giggled so hard that they almost made themselves sick.
“Mamma’s not here.” Arcee grumbles.
“I could tell her, then you’d get in trouble.” Hot Rod giggles.
“Go away!” Arcee barks turning over and shoving Hot Rod out of her berth. He tumbles back and falls onto the cold floor with a thud. Most of the time Arcee was a really nice sister, but when she was waking up she could be a bit of a bully.
“Meanie.” Hot Rod says definitely climbing back up making sure to tug harder of the blankets so more came off of Arcee’s frame.
“Hey!” Arcee grumbles as the insulation sheet is completely pulled off of her frame and its upper half is allowed to fall on the floor. It dangles like a flag on a windless orn. “What was that for?” Arcee says angrily.
“Get up!” Hot Rod says jumping on Arcee’s berth.
“Noooo.” Arcee mumbles turning over and pushing her faceplate into the soft pillows. She reaches over and pulls the blankets off the side of her berth and half-sparkedly pulls them back over her. “Now my blankets are cold.” Arcee complains.
“Common, you need to get up!” Hot Rod says excitedly.
“But why?” Arcee asks, lifting her head to glower at her brother.
“We’re going to the crystal gardens today.” Hot Rod says. Arcee’s face brightens and her optics widen. “Remember?”
“Oh yeah.” Arcee says a small excited smile stretching across her pale faceplate. She gently pushes the blankets off of her body and stretches as she yawns. Hot Rod jumps off of her berth and scurries over to the door.
Arcee isn’t far behind but she is much slower, her systems still coming online. Hot Rod rolls his optics and walks over to Arcee. He grabs her servo and they walk to the door together.
They are just barely tall enough to reach the glowing red button that opens the door for them instead of having to comme their parents to open it for them. In the past, they had spent most of their morning locked in their room because they couldn’t get the door open.
Hot Rod can hear his joints clicking and his wirers stretching as he elongates himself, his digit brushes the little glowing button but he can’t quite press it. Arcee walks behind him, he lets out a little cry of surprise when he feels her arms around his waist, and then his pedes are lifted off the ground.
He’s not lifted very high, but it’s just enough he can press the big red button and the door opens with a hiss. Arcee’s arms tremble from not being used to holding this much weight. She drops him just as the door opens with a soft hiss of hydraulics.
They both dart out of their room and run down the hall to their parent's room giggling all the way.
They both have a habit of waking up at the crack of dawn. After all, that was when their orn usually started.
Most of the time their usual orn was waking up getting Hot Rod and Arcee ready for the education center dropping them off and then going to work. Once the alarm went off there was almost no downtime until the end when the sun was going down.
But today is different, today is a national holiday and everyone gets to have the time off. And for that Optimus is grateful, a little break every now and again is always appreciated.
But their schedule had been engrained into their processors who when 0630 rolled around they had both woken up.
Optimus had been the first to rise, bleary otpics scanning the dark room, the sun had just barely started to peek over the horizon and the faintest of blue light was illuminating their room.
Elita had woken up shortly after, he heard a half-conscious groan next to him he had looked down at his bond mate to see that Elita’s optics had onlined. He had shifted closer to her gently pulling her into his warm arms.
She nestled into his warm chest, lazily throwing an arm over his waist to trace the soft lines where the pain from her digit tips had transferred onto his backplates.
Shivers ran up his back strut as the soft-touch had reminded him of the night before. Breathless whispers in his audials and rich groans falling from her lips. The silkiness that had enveloped him and the tight heat that squeezed him so wonderfully.
For whatever reason, the council seemed to be pit-bent on making life as difficult for the prime and his mate as possible. Twisting their words around, or just straight up not listening. And that particular orn had been exceedingly stressful At the end of the orn after they had put the kids to recharge, they both had this aching need for each other like they hadn’t seen each other in quadri-cycles.
It was almost true, though, they did see each other every day they hardly spoke to one another, their interactions usually consisting of a quick peck on the cheek before taking their sparklings off to the education center or before they activated their recharge cycles.
They had both snapped and went at each other like turbofoxes in heat.
“Good morning.” Elita murmured her breath gently curling around Optimus’s audials.
He kissed her cheek, "Good morning." he said softly. She closed the distance between their faces and gently pressed her fore-helm against his.
He wasn’t entirely sure when they had fallen back into recharge, but they were both woken by a soft hiss.
Giggling flows into their berth room as their sparklings dart in. He feels the soft mesh of their berth dip as the sparklings clamber on a crawl over to them.
“Your sparklings are awake.” Elita murmurs into his chest. Optimus chuckles and prepares himself for the inevitable bombardment.
“Dad! Dad! Come on Dad!” Hot Rod exclaims, jumping up and down between his and Elita’s legs. He feels tiny servos barely able to wrap around one of his digits, grab his thumb and fore-digit and try to pull him up with an exasperated groan. “Come on!” Hot Rod groans pulling on Optimus.
Optimus gently scoops his son up and pulls him closer, Hot Rod wriggles and tries to get out of his grasp but Optimus is too strong. “What are you so excited about?” Optimus asks.
“We’re going to the crystal gardens today, remember?” Hot Rod said a little too loudly. Optimus winces at his son’s pitch but Hot Rod doesn’t notice.
Prime had not forgotten that they were going to the crystal garden, Hot Rod hadn’t let them forget about it all week. He had been rambling on and on about what they were going to do, what kind of the cyber-flora they were going to climb.
The crystal gardens were a good place to go on a day like this, not only did he get to spend time with Elita the kids were able to run around and play with each other and interact with the other sparklings that would come.
Many couples came to the crystal gardens for the same reason. Ironhide and Chomia, Jazz and Prowl, pit even Megatron and Starscream came there just to let their sparklings run around while they got to spend with their significant other.
“We aren’t going till this afternoon,” Optimus says softly.
“But we could get there early.” Hot Rod earnestly says his squirming picking back up.
“Hot Rod, it is way too early.” Prime chuckles. “Go back to sleep.” He suggests.
“But I’m not tired.” Hot Rod whines.
“Elita-” Prime begins to say but he finds that Arcee had tucked herself into her carrier’s embrace and they had both fallen back into recharge. Optimus shifts his son and laid back down next to his sparkmate.
Hot Rod still struggles in his grip, Optimus grips him and little tighter and shifts so he is as close as physically possible to his sparkmate without crushing either of his children.
His optics grow heavy as he is pulled back into recharge.
Hot Rod struggles against his sire’s grip trying to wriggle his way out of his dad’s grip but he is simply too strong for Hot Rod. but his embrace is warm and the beating of his spark is soothing.
Hot Rod fights to stay awake as his recharge cycle threatens to start up again. He is not going to fall into recharge he was going to stay away for as long as it was necessary. His optics grow heavy. Then he jerks back awake. He was not going to fall… into… recharge.
His optics grow too heavy to hold and he allows himself to close them, he could recharge a little bit and then try to convince his family to get up again. Hot Rod yawned before settling into his sire’s chest and letting his recharge cycle take him.