Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In most of his life, Lockdown usually had a set plan laid out that he could follow closely.

In his youth during his time in the dojo he had planned out most of his life in secret once he learned how to read and write. Back then he only planned to learn and hone his skills as a ninja to their full peak and maybe be content with that life training other students, only that backfired when he brought dishonor to the dojo and was kicked out of there. Which was a plus in the end as he found out halfway through his training days how terrible his people skills were around other bots who weren’t Yoketron all the way to his adult stage. His bad temper and rude attitude saw to that.

After that, he found use of his skills to be a bounty hunter during the war, earning an infamous reputation quickly and rising in the underworld ranks. A lone mech that made others think twice, striking fear wherever he went with nothing holding him back. He planned to always keep himself on top and focus only solely on himself alone… until he ran into Swindle.

There wasn’t much between them at first when they first met. Lockdown only sought out the mech for upgrades for his ship and walked away with new mods and a whole lot less scruples than he had before. The moment wasn’t much other than the fact they both left a big impression on each other from that point on.

It didn’t take long for Lockdown to figure out that whenever Swindle was involved, things were bound to get interesting around the mech. At one point Lockdown had found it quite annoying how he kept interfering with his hunts, but over time he learned to just deal with it. Slag, if he played his own cards right, he could get his servos on some of the stuff Swindle was trying to get. Sometimes if he was lucky, he could get away with half of it.

Somewhere down the line with stellar cycles of trade, sell, buy, steal, backstabbing, and plenty of other things between them they ended up in a sort of crazy dance of partnership that benefited and had major drawbacks for the both of them. And somewhere over all that time, over all those stellar cycles, the mercenary couldn’t recall when or why, but hanging around Swindle for so long ended up being probably the worst mistake he ever made. Why?

He caught feelings for the merchant.

If there was one thing he was never good at, it was dealing with his emotions. Pit, he could never understand any of it when he was a youngling and he never understood it when he grew up either.

Emotions? He could do without ‘em thank you very much. They only served as a burden and a distraction, so they were no good for him or his job.

However, while they were a burden to him, Swindle somehow always managed to use his own emotions against other bots to his favor. Twisting them in ways to go with a certain flow he wanted and how he wanted it. Lockdown never understood how Swindle could easily just tamper with someone’s emotions and get them to string along with his plans. And they never even knew it till it was too late!

That had happened to him once or twice in the past before he wisen up and became more careful around the merchant, but Swindle hadn’t tried to, well, swindle him for a couple of stellar cycles due to warming up to the mercenary. Though didn't really mean that he stooped completely.

But beside not being too good with his emotions, he thought he had a good grip on how Swindle worked.

Apparently not.

“… What… am I lookin’ at?” Lockdown felt one of his optics twitch, staring in stunned horror at the… the… the MONSTROSITY in Swindle’s arms.

“Isn’t she cute?!” Swindle beamed at him, clearly not seeing his distress about the THING in the merchant’s arms. “She’s like a little puppy~!” He cooed at the sparkling in his arms.

Lockdown shouldn’t be surprised by this. He spent so much time with Swindle and dealt with A LOT of surprises from the arms dealer over the stellar cycles that this should not be getting under his plating. It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t!

It did.

“What is she wearin’?!” Lockdown couldn’t help but growl a bit. In all honesty, it wasn’t… that bad. Maybe. Kinda. “I’ve been gone fer only, what, eleven solar cycles n’ I come back seein’ her in… this?! ”

“Hey! It’s not that bad!” Swindle huffed. “No need to get so worked up about this.”

“Swin, I don’t even know what she’s supposed ta be wearin’.”

“It’s a cyber-wolf!” Swindle happily proclaimed, shifting the young femme to his servos and held her up. From helm to ped, Scarlet, their four orbital cycle old femmling, was covered in some sort of sad attempt of a disguise. While it did hold some resemblance of a cyber-wolf, it wasn’t even close to the real deal as, one, cyber-wolves don’t for fuzzy pink fur with polka dots and two larger floppy ears on top. 

And worst of all? It was cute.

“Swindle. What in all of Cybertron possessed ya ta put our kid in such a… ugth .”

“Hey! It looks good on her!” Swindle huffed, hugging Scarlet close with one arm. “Plus there’s great benefits to having this onesie on her.”

“Is that what yer callin’ it? That’s a dumb name.”

“Shut up. Someone already had a name for these types of clothing.”

“There’s more than one? Primus help us.”

“Shut up!” Swindle scowled, lifting Scarlet up next to his helm. “With this on her, she wouldn’t have to get cold while recharging! And! It’ll take damage for her so her soft protoskin won’t have to get hurt.”

Lockdown’s frown deepened, not believing a word coming out of Swindle’s intake. “Swindle. Ya do realize that those will never happen to her right?”

“What are you talking about? It could happen!” Swindle insisted as Lockdown rolled his optics.

“Fer one, ya don’t like the cold so ya keep the temp high enough not ta get cold. So I doubt she’ll get cold if she’s roastin’.” Swindle pulled a face. “N’ second, she won’t get hurt. Not with an overprotective carrier watchin’ over her thinkin’ that simply floppin’ backwards on a soft pillow will kill her.”

“SHE COULD SUFFOCATE! OR THERE COULD BE SOMETHING DEADLY INSIDE THEM! YOU NEVER KNOW THE DANGERS SHE COULD FACE AT THIS AGE!” Swindle screamed, hugging Scarlet close to him as if he could shield her from dangers all around. “She’s just a fragile little thing and everything could kill her at any chance!”

Lockdown heavily vented. Oh boy. THIS again. “Swindle, not everythin’ is gonna try ta kill her. She’s safe n’ sound here.”

“But what if pirates come and attack—!”

“Swindle, you n’ I know that’s highly unlikely! Pirates don’t wander in this sector of the galaxy. Not since I killed a few of ‘em fer crossin’ my path.”

“They still would have been worth more alive you know.” Swindle huffed. “And most of them don’t want to do business with me since they know I’m associated with you.”

“Hey, saved yer aft didn’t I?” Lockdown smirked but it quickly fell away when looking back at the… onesie. Primus, it was making his plating crawl. “Take that thin’ off her.”

“What?”

“Take her out of that thin’.” He pointed his hook at their kid, giving the item covering Scarlet a disgusted look. “She doesn’t need it n’ it’s an optic sore. It ain’t even close to looking like the real thin’ n’ it’s terrible craftsmanship. Where did ya even buy it from?”

Swindle’s optics flew wide, his intake hanging open in shock. “I made it myself!”

Lockdown’s optics went wide. “… oh. Well… that explains the…” He coughed into his fist as Swindle narrowed his optics and tapped his ped. “A-anyway, take it off her will ya? There’s no point in dressin’ her up in redic-uh, in onesies.”

Swindle huffed, shifting Scarlet to the crook of his arm. “Why should I? I like it! And she looks comfortable in it!” He turned his focus on the sparkling, smiling sweetly at her. “Don’t you sweet spark?”

The tiny femme, who had been sleeping through the whole argument between her creators, let out a sleepy yawn, stretching her limbs as she slowly awoke from her nap.

Lockdown watched the young sparkling intently. He was still getting used to the fact that he was a sire now. He didn’t doubt she was his. There were too many body similarities between them to be a coincidence. She even had face markings like him, though her markings were different from his and still developing. 

But, him, being a sire? Not something he ever thought of doing. Not once in his life. He didn’t like other sparklings back at the dojo when he was young, and he certainly didn’t like them when he grew older. They always got under his plating with their constant screaming and cries, making huge messes wherever they went and got their servos on everything and never listened to orders. If a mission involved sparklings, he usually contacted Swindle to deal with it since the merchant had a better handling with young bots.

But here she was. A little sparkling he had sired with Swindle. It was… surprising how he made this with Swindle. He made a small being with Swindle and… well, he wasn’t completely sure what to think about this.

On one servo, she wasn’t like other sparklings, never minding that she was his. She was quiet and calm, rarely fussy unless he or Swindle hadn’t held her for a certain amount of time. Swindle had that taken care of mostly as he often held her and carried her around in his arms nearly all the time. On the other, he was very unsure about being a good sire for his kid.

Yeah, he could just up and leave Swindle to take care of her all on his own without his help. Slag, even Swindle had told him that he wouldn’t be roped into caring for their kid and had offered him an easy out.

But he didn’t. Nope. Couldn’t find it in himself just to do that to Swindle after everything he had been through while he had carried Scarlet all that time. He already abandoned Swindle once due to not listening and letting his anger get the better of him, he wasn’t going to just do that again when he saw what had happened to the merchant. Losing his best market for mods was okay, but losing Swindle wasn’t.

Scarlet opened one optic, blinking it lazily. Her cat-like optics were one of the few things she inherited from Swindle, which Lockdown was rather grateful for. She blinked, staring at her arms and stabilizers. A silent moment passed… 

And then Scarlet let out a loud scream, startling both of her creators.

“Scarlet?!” Swindle lifted the screaming femmling up, looking her all over with worry as she screamed and kicked her peds. “What’s wrong?! Sweetie what’s wrong?! Are you hungry?! Hurt?! Sleepy?! You just had a nap! Do you need—”

“ Oh For Primus Sake, Give Her Here! ” Lockdown snatched the wailing sparkling from Swindle, cutting the back open and pulled the horrible onesie off Scarlet with the yank of his hook.

Immediately Scarlet went quiet, blinking a few times before settling against Lockdown’s chest and cooed.

“Seems I’m not the only one who hates the onesie.” Lockdown smirked, tossing the ruined nightmare garment over his shoulder. His smirk didn’t last as he caught sight of Swindle’s face. It looked torned between hurt and complete sadness, ready on the verge of a breakdown. 

“I spent… solar cycles on that.” Swindle sadly glanced at the ground as Lockdown went over and pulled the mech in a side hug. “Getting measurements and… and material that was comfy for sparklings. And she didn’t like it. ” He let out a sad whimper.

“Hey hey hey. Come on Swin. Ya give it a shot. No need to get upset over it.” Slag, he was terrible at this comfort thing. “It wasn’t… that bad.”

“You called it an optic sore.” Swindle pointed out, making the hunter cringe.

“Well, okay yeah, but. Ya gotta admit it was a nice try.” Lockdown shrugged. “Though I think Scarlet likes havin’ her platin’ touchin’ against her carrier, don’t ya think?” He held out Scarlet to Swindle, letting the merchant take their kid back.

Swindle was silent as he and Scarlet stared at each other. The small femmling stared up at him with her red cat optics before snuggling against the purple glass of Swindle’s chest, making the arms dealer smile slightly at the gesture.

“Yeah… I guess.” He huffed, lifting Scarlet up and rubbed her cheek against his. “You probably just didn’t like it because you don’t like your limbs restrained huh? That was probably it, yes.” He cooed, hugging Scarlet close. “Oooooo~! Don’t worry, I still find you cute without that silly onesie on you.”

Lockdown sighed silently as the trio headed deeper into Swindle’s hidden warehouse. Crisis averted.

Chapter Text

Greed. That was the main word to describe Swindle. He was greedy for nearly anything and everything he saw and desired.

Most mechs and femmes assumed that was some sort of flaw in his programming or something he installed inside himself to keep coming back for more even after each beat down he received nearly every time his deception was discovered. Though that would be far from the truth, but Swindle never put any effort to correct those rumors. He’d rather have the truth of his past buried deep underneath mountains of lies than let anyone know the reality of it all.

Not unless anyone wanted an angry merchant with plenty of seedy contacts at the tip of his digits knocking at their hideouts

Lockdown had been lucky because Swindle had been too focused on keeping himself safe during the carrying process to even think about any payback against the hunter. And even luckier that he made some amends that put him on a safer side of Swindle’s temper. While Swindle was basically more a bot of business, he can and will hold a deep grudge against bots who wronged him for a very, very long time.

He was probably still mad at that one Seeker that tried to cut him open and play with his innards after trying to drug him. Lockdown wasn’t sure why Swindle never bothered to call him for a job on that one.

But there was one thing bots outside of Swindle’s friendly associates and ‘buddies’ didn’t know about that was well hidden. Something that overpowered his greediness. Something he would dare not sell or bargen with or even be remotely okay with should he even figure out about it. Something that he would bend over backwards for and even sacrifice his boundless currency for the sake of keeping the one thing in top condition and care.

Sparklings.

It didn’t take a super genius to see how much Swindle loved sparkling. Heck, even during the war where it was every mech for themselves back then, Swindle would toss that away whenever he spied a sparkling or two in need of help. Primus Swindle even got between him and a small group of young half-lings that someone wanted ‘taken care of’ nearing the end of the war.

He never took a Swindle as a softy for young sparks, but he was sort of an enigma to everyone. And the last mech that tried to harm a sparkling around him, the mech mysteriously disappeared the next megacycle. Lockdown didn’t know what exactly Swindle did to the mech, and he debated if he even wanted to know. Though judging the way bots had avoided harming sparklings after that solar cycle with Swindle around the area, he had a pretty good guess that it hadn’t been a laughing matter to brush off.

And it was no secret to Lockdown that Swindle adored their own sparkling.

The merchant loved and cared for their daughter so much that Lockdown hardly had any hand in helping. Which was very… mixed for the hunter.

On one side, Lockdown knew very little about caring for small sparks. He knew they needed a lot of attention and care, but that job was usually left to the other students and masters of the dojo, so he never had developed any skill of sparkling care. He probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway. Didn’t like any of those brats or the students dojo who looked at him like some sort of mistake.

It wasn’t his fault his creators were idiots! He didn’t ask to be a half breed! Or have such a slagging frag awful sire that didn’t give even a nanoklik of a glance at him when they found out about his existence and dumped him at the dojo’s steps at the first chance they got! 

And Autobots think they have a more moral higher ground than Decepticons. Tck.

On the other side, while Lockdown was glad not to be forced into caring for Scarlet, Swindle took up most of his time just to care for Scarlet and nothing else. Lockdown wasn’t normally a jealous mech, but he did feel a little irked that Swindle would want to spend more time with Scarlet than him, and not even letting the hunter hold her most of the time either.

This… this had to be a joke right? He was the kid’s sire. He should at least get to spend some time with his kid, but Swindle kept the femmling all to himself. He supposed that he shouldn’t be too irritated. Swindle always dreamed of having his own little family one day after the war. And he knew more about sparklings than he ever did.

Still, he would like to spend some time with his kid. Just to be there when she needed him, or at least leave a good impression on her so she didn’t think he upped and abandoned her and Swindle so responsibility didn’t get dumped on him. There was no way he was going to turn out like his own sire and not be a part of his own kid’s life.

Yeah, didn’t want a sparkling in his life, yet the deed was done, and there was no way he was just going to run away with his tail between his stabilizers like a coward. Besides, Scarlet wasn’t that bad of a sparkling.

She was a very calm one, spending most of her time just recharging, though Swindle swears that all the datapads about sparkling care and guidance says that she’s supposed to be more active at this stage, along with plenty of other things that worried the first time carrier. Lockdown didn’t worry too much. If the kid was still alive and healthy, then there was no real worry, right?

Though, he couldn’t quite say the same thing about Swindle.

When was the last time Swindle had a break?

That thought stuck in Lockdown’s processor as he watched Swindle move about one end of the room to the other. His movement was slow and sluggish, not with the usual pep and smoothness he usually had. There was noticeable tiredness in his voice as he spoke with the bot on the other side of the comm-link, gesturing around with one servo while looking ready to collapse right then and there.

“For the last time, I didn’t get any orders for that sort of supply. And I certainly don’t remember getting any form of contact from you orbital cycles ago.” Swindle turned just enough for Lockdown to get a good look at his face. Deep dark grooves were growing under the merchant’s optics, which were dim and low on energy.

Lockdown grimaced. When was the last time Swindle properly recharged?

“Look.” Swindle continued on. “As much as I would love to carry this pointless conversation on, I have another pressing matter to attend to.” His gaze turned to the small cradle next to Lockdown, smiling fondly. “One that I know isn’t trying to heckle me out of free supplies. So why don’t you try and practice your amateur moves on a less mastered con mech or get a real job you hobo.” With that, he cut off the comm-link and strode over to the couch.

“Was that really necessary?” Lockdown asked as Swindle reached into the cradle and picked up Scarlet.

“Can’t out swindle a master swindler.” The merchant flashed him a showman smile. “Honestly, why do bots think they can pull one over me? Do they even realize who I even am?”

“I’m not sure.” Lockdown shrugged, watching Swindle seat himself next to him with Scarlet safely held in his arms. “Your name should be ‘nough ta tip ‘em off.”

“Yet.” Swindle sighed. “It doesn’t seem to stop the more ignorant bots from trying.” He chuckled, leaning against Lockdown.

The mercenary stiffened. Swindle was a mech who hungered for physical attention from others, yet Lockdown was someone who didn’t particularly like being touched for many reasons. Yet, it was kind of nice to have some physical contact that wasn’t planning on how to dismantle him to bits.

He spared a glance at Swindle, seeing that he was fighting off sleep and losing against the battle greatly. “… Swin?”

“Mm?”

“You feelin’ alright?”

Swindle turned his helm and blinked slowly at him. “… I… just a bit tired, that’s all.”

“Ya want to grab a quick nap? You look like you could use one.”

Swindle shook his helm. “No. I don’t need to. I have to look after Scarlet.”

Lockdown’s frown deepened. “Swin ya look like yer ‘bout to topple over any nanoklik now. You can watch over Scarlet once ya had a decent recharge.”

“But I can’t!” Swindle sat up, looking right at Lockdown with fearful optics. “She needs me to take care of her! She’s completely helpless without me taking care of her a-a-and if I’m not watching over her something bad might happen and she could get hurt! Or lost! Or even killed if I—”

“Swindle yer overreacting again.” Lockdown sighed as he looped an arm around Swindle’s shoulders and pulled him close against his side. “Nothin’ bad is goin’ ta happen ta the kid. You already sparklin’-proof this place like eight times already.”

“Ten times.” Swindle corrected, getting comfortable against Lockdown. “I added a few more things while you were gone.”

“Ten? My goodness Swindle.” Lockdown couldn’t help but sigh, shaking his helm in disbelief. “You are completely overprotective of her.”

“First time carrier remember?” Swindle winked at him.

“First time sire, remember? ” Lockdown countered. “You got ta stop worryin’ so much Swindle. Kid ain’t in danger. She ain’t even slagin’ old enough ta walk ‘round yet. N’ no one knows ‘bout this place besides you n’ me.”

“But—!”

“Shh.” Lockdown placed his hook over Swindle’s intake, silencing him before he could go into another spiel about watching and caring for Scarlet was top priority than anything else. As if Lockdown wanted more of his ego hurt already. “You gotta relax more Swin. Kid’s safe with the two of watchin’ over her.”

“But.”

“Shh.” Lockdown lifted his servo to the back of Swindle’s helm, rubbing circles at the base of his neck. Swindle’s body shivered, biting his lower lip and groaning in pleasure. “Shh. No need to get so riled up Swin. Everythin’s okay.”

“B-but…” Swindle tried to protest, yet with Lockdown rubbing slow deliberate circles against his neck, the merchant was quickly melting under the hunter’s touch. “Oooooh Primus.” Swindle shivered, falling against Lockdown’s side and slowly succumbed to the relaxing pleasure Lockdown was giving him. “Sooooo gooooood.” He groaned, rubbing his cheek against the larger mech’s chest.

Lockdown only smirked as he continued rubbing circles against Swindle’s neck, watching as Swindle slowly relaxed his optics and closed them.

“Beep? Beeeeep.”

Lockdown groaned as something slapped the corner of his intake. He tried brushing it away, but whatever was disturbing him, it was persistent.

“Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.”

The hunter’s face scrunched as the attacks kept going, now going for his chin, cheeks, and upper lip. Whoever was dumb enough to disturb him was either really stupid or had a deep death wish.

“Beep!”

Something smacked against his left optic, hard enough to make the hunter jump and wake with a start. He found himself staring up at a pair of red cat optics staring back down at him.

“… Beep!” Scarlet smiled at her sire, happy to finally gotten his attention.

Lockdown stared at his sparkling, surprised to see her wide awake when she normally slept through the day. “… uh, morin’ pipsqueak.” Lockdown patted her on the helm. He really didn’t know what to do at the moment. He knew he should be at least a little nurturing towards his kid, but that was normally Swindle’s job than his.

Speaking of which. Lockdown lifted his helm, finding Swindle’s helm laying on his chest fast asleep. Swindle mumbled, pulling Lockdown closer to him as he recharged peacefully.

At least he’s getting some decent sleep. Lockdown thought, glancing back at the sparkling laying against his shoulder. Scarlet had taken an interest in one of his shoulder spikes, staring at it intently with her wide optics. “You better not be thinkin’ ‘bout puttin’ your intake on that ‘cause if ya are I’ll never hear the end of it from yer carrier.”

Scarlet gave him a pointed stare. “Beep.” Sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder if his kid was smarter than she let on.

Lockdown huffed. What was he even thinking? A sparkling was just a sparkling, nothing more to it. He stole a glance at Swindle, making sure he was still recharging before sighing. Looks like it was his turn to watch over Scarlet. Lucky him.

With careful skill and craft he perfected over the stellar cycles, Lockdown carefully slipped out of Swindle’s hold, making sure to replace his presence with one of the many pillows that decorated the couch. Having spent many stellar cycles recharging next to Swindle had perfected his skill of slipping out of Swindle’s sleepy grasp without waking the mech. Kind of a useful skill when Lockdown figured that Swindle could use a few more wink of recharge.

And to swipe a mod or two while the mech still slept.

Making sure Swindle didn’t wake, Lockdown scooped up Scarlet and headed out the room. “Alright Missy.” He lifted the sparkling up to his face. “What’s so important that ya had to go n’ wake yer sire huh? I was enjoying a nice nap with yer carrier.”

Scarlet stared at him, blinking a few times as she brought up one of her servos and began chewing on it.

“Hey, hey! Don’t try to eat yer servo!” Lockdown snapped lightly, pulling the tiny servo out of Scarlet’s intake. “Fuel is only supposed ta go in there. Yer servos are meant fer pickin’ lock n’ throwin’ punches.”

“Beep!” Scarlet lifted her stabilizers, throwing a small fist in the air with her free servo. “Beep!”

Lockdown couldn’t help but smirk. “Heh. That’s right kiddo. Yer gonna be throwin’ some hard knuckle sandwiches when ya get older.” He chuckled but was cut off guard when Scarlet managed to kick him in the chin with the end of her peds. “N’ with a nasty kick to boot too.” He smirked, rubbing his chin as Scarlet grinned at him.

Oooh yes. She was definitely his kid alright.

He lifted the sparkling up, gazing at her intently. It would be a few stellar cycles before he would need to start training Scarlet how to hold and use a weapon, though it was probably going to be a long time to convince Swindle to even let her hold a small knife before she could even get a chance with an empty gun. But Lockdown wasn’t an idiot.

He wasn’t going to give his kid a loaded gun. Not until she was old enough to know the danger of holding a firearm and she had a few hundred stellar cycles of ninja training under her belt. Swindle wasn’t going to stop him from teaching a few deadly moves to his kid. His little girl should have some form of protection right?

“Since yer up n’ makin’ a racket, ya must be gettin’ hungry.” He poked her middle, earning a little squeal and a slap from the young sparkling.

Over the stellar cycles, Lockdown had learned many things about Swindle. Ranging from having many secret hidden bases and storage areas for his goods and wares to despite having a universal greed and having traveled nearly everywhere in the universe, refusing to go to a certain sector that had a long standing war going on which he could no doubt grain profit from but refused to do so and wouldn’t tell why.

Though having spent so much time with the merchant and knowing a bit of his past, Lockdown knew why he never went to that sector or even dared to do business there.

Currently, the small family was in one of Swindle’s most well hidden and if not most lavished of secret hide away bases. High ceilings that could fit twenty Seekers, marble stone floor, cushioned pleasurable furniture and nicely placed highly expensive looking decor that could make helms turn and gawk at the splendor. If this place didn’t scream rich snobbish frager then he didn’t want to know what did.

There was no denying that Swindle was rich, but dang , was Swindle RICH . It baffled Lockdown how Swindle chose to spend his life always trying to make a financial gain when he already had plenty of scruples and shanixs left over from the time of the great war. Maybe it because he was so stingy with money?

Even the refueling area was decked out to look more like a bar than a refueling station. Stools lined up against the bar table, fancy chandeliers hung on the ceiling, color changing lights highlighting the background of wall decor which were, conveniently, all set to stay on a variety shades of purple. Even the dispensers for fuel were fancy from the handles to the engraving of each flavor and type etched in each one.

Sadly, they were all shut off and empty of any fuel. Swindle wasn’t an idiot to leave such an easy opportunity for a heavy drinking bounty hunter to get his servos on high grade Energon and Engex out in the open. No, all that was sorted away somewhere Lockdown couldn’t find and Swindle wasn’t willing to let it slip where he hid the goods to the bounty hunter.

But Lockdown wasn’t interested in getting his servos on Engex. Yet. He was here on more pressing important matters.

Behind the bar was a small kitchen area where regular Energon was stored, along with various metals and irons and stones that helped with taste and nanite repair. It was a nice set up, but it was very bland compared to the rest of the hidden base. Lockdown didn’t mind though. If it did a good job storing fuel, then he had no issues of how it looked.

Lockdown hummed a little tune as he went through the storage, trying to find the special Energon made specifically for sparklings. Lockdown really didn’t get why they couldn’t use regular Energon, yet Swindle insisted that they use the special stuff and there was no convincing the merchant otherwise. And there was no way Lockdown was going to have another argument with Swindle about it.

“Where does he… ah, here we go.” Lockdown smirked as he opened a cabinet, finding all the stored sparkling Energon inside. Small pink cubes lined the walls, with enough bottles to feed at least ten or fifteen sparklings at once, all varieties in size and shape. Another thing Swindle insisted on with some excuse that Scarlet might not like this or that or some other reason. Lockdown stopped listening halfway through the beginning of the long explanation.

Shifting Scarlet to his prosthetic arm, he grabbed the nearest bottle and set it on the nearby counter, spying one of Swindle’s sparkling care datapad laying against some of the Energon with a note attached to it. Shrugging, he grabbed the datapad along with a few cubes of Energon and tossed them both on the counter.

Figuring it wouldn’t hurt, Lockdown opened the datapad and skimmed through it till he found an interesting section.

While Energon is the main source of substance for Cybertronians, sparklings however are unable to fully break down and absorb this life-giving substance due to having more fragile fuel tanks. It’ll take nearly five stellar cycles for the sparkling’s tank to fully develop to be capable to safely absorb the Energon. Therefore, a more suitable replacement substance is needed for sparklings to safely consume.

Energon made for sparklings are varied as sparklings will refuse or not eat the Energon at all due to many reasons ranging from the wrong quantity to needing different materials added in the Energon. Different metal shavings are added in the Energon, to help with sparkling growth and strengthen a sparkling’s fuel tank and inner workings.

Most new time carriers often experiment for the best combination of metals and shavings in order to find what best fits their sparklings preferred taste and demand of metals while more experienced carriers will often go with the same metal variety they craved for while carrying. New carriers are often advised to seek out doctors for help to determine what their sparkling needs are to be added in their Energon to ensure they grow up healthy.

“Huh. That’s intrestin’.” Lockdown muttered, setting the datapad down and plucked off the note taped on it with Swindle's handwriting on it.

WHY HAVEN’T I HEARD OF THIS BEFORE?! This would have been so much easier if I knew about this stellar cycles ago!

Lockdown couldn’t help but chuckle, shaking at Swindle’s note that continued to rant and rave from the top all the way down to the bottom. He flipped it over, expecting more ranting, but found a small list instead going over the combos and favorable metal combination Scarlet preferred to eat in her Energon.

Which was rather lucky for him cause now he didn’t have to go through all those metals just to find which ones Scarlet would actually eat. “Lets see… titanium, aluminum… silver? Tungsten?” He let out a low whistle, seeing more and more high quality metals on the small list. “Yer morelike yer carrier in more ways than one, huh kiddo?”

Scarlet only replied by trying to fit her sire’s hook in her intake.

After a few trials and errors getting the right measurements and the right temperature (because of course Swindle is going to spoil their kid that way), Lockdown managed to finally get the right mixture in the end.

Scarlet chugged it down without trouble, quietly eating as Lockdown got down to cleaning the kitchen. The last time he left a mess after grabbing a few cubes, he never heard the end of it from Swindle till he finally swore to clean up his messes.

While Swindle put on a polite face in front of customers who had ranges of questionable manners, he didn’t have a problem showing his issues to Lockdown. Lucky him. 

Finishing up his work, Lockdown beamed at himself in his reflection. He could clearly see his face marks, with a sharp black streak going up and down of each optic and two more stripes on his lower jaw, he was quite a sight to behold. A scary one at that.

He looked down at Scarlet. He had half expected her to find him frightening when her optics opened, yet she only stared at him unblinkingly for a long time before going right back to sleep. Completely unaffected, just like her carrier.

“Hey, kiddo.” He tapped Scarlet’s helm, getting her attention. “Look at that.” He pointed at the counter, leaning far enough for her to see her own reflection.

Lockdown wasn’t sure what her reaction would be, but he was certainly in for a surprise.

When Scarlet looked at her own reflection, the femmling stared at herself. There was a moment of silence as the young spark continued to stare.

“BEEEEEEP!” Lockdown jumped when Scarlet let out a loud angry beep, watching as she leaned forward and shook her bottle angrily at her reflection. “Beep Beep! Beep beep beep! BEEP BEEP! ” She lifted her bottle up, still partly filled with sparkling fuel, and chucked it at her reflection in the counter.

The bottle hit the counter hard. Hard enough that the cap keeping the special Energon in came popping off and the contents inside it gushed out from the force, coating both sparkling and sire in pink glowing fluid.

Lockdown stood there dumbfounded. He looked at the mess to the bottle then down to the equally stunned sparkling in his arms. She did not stay stunned long and looked at herself, gazing at her pink colored servo before sticking it in her intake and began sucking on it.

“… bath time.” Lockdown huffed in annoyance.

The wash racks were located on the second floor, though the whole base was underground, which confused Lockdown on what to call it before finally deciding not to care.

The wash rack was, like everything else, very luxurious. Walk in areas, high quality nozzles and sprays, a large assortment of sponges, brushes, steel mesh, scrubbers, towels and cloths for cleaning, shining, and polishing one’s armor and protoform. There were even an assortment of waxes and chemicals to buff out and clean up a bot nicely.

Lockdown had used them plenty of times after coming back from a hunt. All the times Swindle would shove and pull him towards the wash racks and get him under a nozzle and cover in hot water that washed away the dirt and grime that covered his body.

It felt nice. He will admit that having such filth cover his armor itched sometimes in ways that got him irritated, so it was relaxing to have it all off him. And it was nice when Swindle helped him clean off in places he couldn’t reach.

Heading for the nearest rack, he grabbed only the necessities he needed and headed in. Scarlet looked around curiously as Lockdown set the shower head for the softest spray, double checking to make sure none of the nozzles and sprays were set on anything that would accidentally harm Scarlet before turning them on. Scarlet quickly became transfixed on the shower as water started pouring out.

Lockdown kept adjusting the temperature before finding the right setting that was comfortable enough not to burn Scarlet but warm enough not to be cold. The femmling let out a beep of surprise as Lockdown stepped under the spray, letting most of the water hit him and slid down his armor.

Scarlet watched as the pink fluid began washing away from her and her sire’s bodies, dripping to the ground and down the drain. With his daughter preoccupied, Lockdown got to work cleaning her off.

Using a soft rag, he dabbed a good amount of soap on it before beginning his work cleaning up Scarlet’s armor, making sure to to be careful not to harm her small body and getting all the seams and transformation lines that would later develop become joints when she reached around fifty or so stellar cycles. By that age she would be able to transform and speed around in her alt mode.

Swindle was already making bets that she would transform into something that wasn’t his own muscle car.

It was still too early. Yeeeeet Lockdown was willing to take up those bets.

Getting the last of the Energon off and washing off the excess soap, Lockdown made quick work of the mess on his body and cleaned off as well. Once it was all done, Lockdown shut off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a large towel and began drying off himself and used a smaller one for Scarlet.

Clean once again, Lockdown sighed as he walked down the spiral staircase to the lower floor. Scarlet was tucked securely in a soft towel, tucked against Lockdown’s chest.

The little sparkling yawned, rubbing her optics and snuggling close to her sire, blinking her big optics up at him.

“Heh. You n’ me both kid.” The hunter smirked down at his kid, headed for the nearest plush couch and flopped down on it, huffing through his vents.

It hadn’t been that bad of an experience, but PRIMUS he was starting to understand why Swindle looked so tired now. It had only been, what, a megacycle or so yet caring for a small sparkling felt like it had taken a stellar cycle to complete. And Swindle had to deal with this every solar cycle?

Well, he at least had it better off. Scarlet had been very calm during the whole thing, aside from yelling at her reflection at the counter each time and throwing stuff at it, making an even bigger mess before Lockdown finally managed to clean everything up. But she was still rather easier to handle than most sparklings.

The ones back at the dojo kept crying and shouting and making messes no matter what their caretakers tried doing. Lockdown only found peace by sneaking off and hiding in Yoketron’s room and staying curled up next to the master’s stabilizers till everything calmed down again for him to go back.

His spark squeezed in pain.

Yoketron.

He hadn’t thought much of his old sensei in a good way since his youth.

Before he could shut away his memories, old images came pushing to the front of his mind. Days that had long since passed and never to return, old faint memories of actual warmth that was given to him freely by a mech who didn’t look at him like he was some sort of rusting disease, the joy he felt in his spark when he received praises from his master for mastering another ninja skill, and the night he let the mech on his fear and worries after a long hard solar cycle and looked up to the mech more and more like a sire figure.

His spark felt like it was being twisted.

How long ago had those solar cycles been?

How long had it been since he could remember a blissful time with his old master and the hardships he endured all those times?

Too long.

Too long being hidden away by work, his own brash cockiness, and finally giving in to being the monster they all said he was back then in his youth.

Something started to prick at his optics, but Lockdown quickly squashed down those memories, pushing away his own feelings and tried hard to forget those memories. They weren’t worth being remembered. They were part of his past that had no worth to him.

The only memories he wanted to remember were his accomplishments, a well earned hunting trophy, and nights he spent with a certain merchant. Lockdown glanced down at Scarlet, smirking softly as she yawned and snuggled against his chest plating. And Scarlet’s emergence could be counted as a good memory he guessed.

“You sure are a lot of work fer such a sleepy sparklin’.” He chuckled, patting Scarlet’s back.

“Urp!”

Lockdown raised an optic ridge as Scarlet smacked her lips and settled back down. “… n’ rude too.” He scoffed lightly, letting a rare small smile cross his face as he gently rubbed circles on Scarlet’s back, easing the small femme into a peaceful recharge against him.

Swindle’s optics flew open, sitting up straight with panic on his face, whipping his helm around wildly. “Scarlet?!” He screamed, looking under the thick cushions and pillows, flipping over furniture and jamming his helm in cabinets.

Finding no sign of his sparkling anywhere in the room, Swindle was flying into a panic, racing out of the room. “Lockdown! Lockdown Scarlet Is—!” He stopped in his tracks, finding the hunter sprawled out on one of his thick plush couches with Scarlet curled up on his chest.

Relief slowly filled Swindle’s spark as he sighed, patting his chest to bring his pulse down. Lockdown had her. Of course he had her. How did he forget that the hunter was here too? Shaking his helm, he took a moment to admire the scene before him.

Lockdown looked so peaceful with Scarlet recharging against him, someone could almost say the bounty hunter looked… cute.

A sly grin crossed Swindle’s face as an idea popped into his processor, digging through his subspace and pulling out an old camera. He grinned as he carefully aimed the device at the sleeping pair, feeling giddy as he prepared to press the button.

“Don’t even think ‘bout it.”

His digit froze at the growl, his grin fading to a pout. “Oh come on! Just one little picture! You can handle that right?”

“Don’t you already have ‘nough of ‘em in that album of yers?” Lockdown huffed as Swindle begrudgingly put the camera away.

“Yeah. But none of them are with you two together.” Swindle sighed. He stared at them for a long while before smiling softly. “So. How was she?”

Lockdown shrugged, his optics remained closed and remained lying on the couch. “Easy, I guess. Definitely not what I expected fer sparklin’ care.” He opened one optic. “N’ ya do this? Every solar cycle?”

Swindle couldn’t help but chuckle, moving towards the couch and crouching down next to the hunter’s helm. “Yep. Some solar cycles are harder than others, though I don’t really mind. I get to spend time with a cutie after all.” He cooed at Scarlet.

“Hm. Explains why ya been lookin’ like slag lately.”

“I do not look like slag.” Swindle huffed. “I just… haven’t been able to get proper recharge lately, that’s all.”

“Mmm. Wonder how that could have happened?” Lockdown was smirking at him, which Swindle responded by shoving his face.

“Laugh it up while you can. Moments like these aren’t going to last forever.” He smirked a bit. “… you want anything?”

Lockdown hummed, closing his optic. “… Midgrade Energon. Extra sweetener. No mint flavors.”

Swindle smile, placing a quick kiss on Lockdown’s cheek, making the hunter sigh contently. “Coming right up.”

Chapter Text

There were plenty of Decepticons with infamous reputations.

It was no secret that the more rambunctious mechs and femmes loved to boast about their deadly acts and their terrible deeds during the war while the more prideful ones tended to bask silently in the shadows. He could honestly say that he was the more humble kind of Decepticon most of the time, staying his best out of the spotlight as much as he could. However he was not above using petty mockery on his victims and ‘willing’ test subjects when performing another successful experiment on them.

Though such actions of his test and experiments left him in a bad reputation not just to the Autobots and to his own faction as well, leaving many bots to avoid him unless necessary.

He didn’t really mind. He didn’t like being around other bots too much. Not many wanted his company anyway. Not unless they wanted to suddenly find themselves strapped down on one of his examination tables with over half of their internal components missing entirey from their body.

It was the reason why he was mostly left alone standing in the corner of the room nursing a glass of Engex in his claws. It was odd for Strika to host a small party, but not without its reasons. A while back they had managed to gain control of one of the more sustainable outer colonies of Cybertron, gaining not only land but a reliable fuel source as well. It was too bad that it wasn’t one of Optimus Magnus’s colonies, but he could see why Strika chose to attack this one.

The poor leadership of the fallen previous Magnus still hasn’t improved after a century it seems.

It was almost laughable how he tried so hard to cling to power that he couldn’t see how terrible he was at it. He was clearly not forged to be a leader, not like the current one on Cybertron. While most Decepticons could point and laugh at mech trying to bring peace to the two factions, he could not deny that Optimus was doing a good job at keeping his word for the few Decepticons that had abandoned the war to keep them safe.

Strika could call them cowards and traitors all she likes, but he could see they were only empty threats and jabs to hide her anger over the loss of her conjux and the future they could never have now. She was still denying the rumors about Lugnut’s death, still trying to keep her grasp on the anger that kept her going most solar cycles now without her love by her side. 

Still delusional denial, thinking that keeping a small part of the war going will give her peace to her grieving spark.

He almost felt pity for her. Almost. She may have been his old team leader, but he held no real friendship and care towards her or the others. It was only for the cause that he followed orders and duties.

Friendship was not his strong point, nor did he ever plan to seek it out anyone's company.

It was more important that he stuck with the shadows anyway, picking up bits and pieces of gossip and small talk for any useful information he could use. And maybe some possible blackmail he could use to gain a few more willing bots to participate in his experiments.

The room’s atmosphere felt pleasant, filled with high spirits and even higher on Engex. It was a nice change of the stiff and serious air that hung everywhere with other Decepticons. Though it didn’t feel as thick as before when the war with Cybertron’s Autobots had come to a standstill. Stellar cycles worth of pain doesn’t go away easily overnight, but the pain was slowly beginning to heal. And a few more Decepticons keep joining under Optimus Magnus’s rule each passing stellar cycle for safety and to finally escape from the clutches of war.

They couldn’t fully escape from their past actions, but the Magnus was a merciful mech. If they were willing, Decepticons were given a chance to work at one of the outer colonies as community service rather than lock them away in the Stockades. The more serious the crime, the more time they were required to work. From what he heard, they were treating Decepticons fairly and firmly, making sure both sides didn’t try to kill each other or be treated like anything less. The first few stellar cycles had been rough, but over time it started to work and become a more suitable punishment for Cons to desire and a better home for their young sparklings.

That was the main reason for most Decepticons to join Optimus Magnus after the war. Raising a sparkling without efficient resources to sustain them to youngling-hood often meant that the young spark would die in a few short stellar cycles. It was a hard thing to do and even harder on creators when they lost a sparkling. He knew a good few Decepticons who became broken and a former shell of themselves after countless losses of their sparklings.

He didn’t like sparklings all too much. They were too much work that wasn’t contributing to the war or his experiments. Not that he could get his servos on a sparkling. Not if he wanted a certain arms dealer trailing him down and doing exactly like the rumors claimed he would do. Rumor or not, there was no quicker way to get on the merchant’s bad side than to harm a sparkling.

Though maybe he could now that he and a certain bounty hunter were no longer on steady terms with each other.

From what the rumors were going about, they had a large fallout that ended with their ties being cut off with each other. As much as he wasn’t into rumors, it was too good to pass up when he got the word and he just had to confirm it for himself with the bounty hunter. They weren’t pals but they were sometimes good drinking buddies. A few heavy bottles of Engex and the mercenary was spilling all his woes to him, though sadly he wouldn’t explain what exactly happened other than exclaiming ‘He cheated on me! Billions and billions of stellar cycles and he cheated on me!’ quite loudly before swearing and cursing the mech’s name, vowing to kill them if he ever saw them again.

After that he trashed half the bar before he managed to pull the hunter out of there, though not before the owner banned them from the place.

He hadn’t heard from the mech in over a stellar cycle, though he had seen the reports of their dirty work. Maybe after the party he could ring the mech up for some business. And get a couple of fresh new corpuses to work with.

[Enjoyin’ the party?]

The glass froze in his servos, optics darting around yet finding no one was speaking to him directly.

[Never really took ya as a mech who enjoyed these thin’s.]

It took him a moment to recognize the voice, relaxing somewhat. “Normally I don’t.” He kept his voice low so he wouldn’t attract anyone’s unnecessary attention. “But they were offering free Engex, so who could say no to that?”

[Heh. Too true.]

He eyed the crowd, trying to find the sneaky mech. “But I could say the same thing about you. You don’t tolerate bots as much as I do, so what brings you to this part of space?”

[Business.]

“A bounty?”

[No.] 

“… no?”

[It ain’t a bounty. As much as I would like it ta be. No, it’s a different kind of business.]

A small smirk played at his lips. “Oh? That’s rare on your account.”

[I know you’re smirkin’.]

“Guilty.” Giving the crowd one last glance, he set the glass down. “If you’re contacting me, I take it that it’s something that needs my expertise.”

[… you can say that.]

There was hesitance in the hunter’s voice. Interesting. “I’ll be outside in four cycles.”

[Okay. Jus’… don’t freak out.]

Ah, so he brought something for him. “Oh please. I’ve seen plenty of things in my life. I won’t freak out.”

“WHAT THE SLAG IS THAT?!”

Lockdown cringed. “I really hoped that ya wouldn’t freak out.”

“Of course I’m going to freak out! Why shouldn’t I freak out?!”

“It’s jus’ a sparklin’ Oil Slick.”

“Just a—!” Oil Slick sputtered, pacing side to side as his arms flailing about.

In all honesty, Lockdown sort of expected the scientist to freak out a little. They weren’t friends, just good drinking buddies, and sometimes business partners. Oil Slick had the credits and mods to pay and Lockdown was willing to hunt down the target and bring them in. That was simply all to it

Oil Slick stopped in front of the bounty hunter, venting deeply and clapping his servos together. “Lockdown. I know we’re not friends. BUT THIS.” He pointed his claws at the sleeping sparkling in Lockdown’s arms. “Is something I knoew you SWORE you would never do.”

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb!” Oil Slick threw his servos in the air. “I know what you’re planning and I want no part of it! I know you and Swindle were a thing before and his two-timing hurt you, but I REFUSE to lay my claws on a sparkling just so you could get back at him! He may be a weak mech, but I do NOT want to find out if those rumors are true. Good. Day.”

With that the scientist turned and started marching away in a huff.

“… That bot he was cheatin’ on me with was me.”

Oil Slick halted. He stood there for a good cycle before turning on his heel and marched right back at Lockdown with a deep scowl. “You’re telling me. That this whole time. The mech was you?”

Lockdown smirked a bit, shrugging. “Yeah.”

Oil Slick groaned, slapping a servo over the glass surrounding his helm. “ Lockdown. There’s a reason I gave you those datapads filled with relationship advice.”

“Hey, in my defense I blame my emotions that solar cycle for the misunderstandin’.”

“Oh really? And what exactly type of misunderstanding made you think Swindle was cheating on you? What could he have possibly said or done that would make you think that he had his optics on someone else?”

Lockdown frowned, gazing down at Scarlet. “… it’s a long story.”

“Well the way to my lab is going to take a while.” Oil Slick huffed, crossing his arms. “So why don’t you start from the beginning and go from there?”

Lockdown frowned a bit, mulling over his options. “… weeelllll I guess ya can say it all started with the usual of business deal makin’ n’ a couple glasses of Engex.”

“Nnnnnn’ that’s when I finally figured that the sparklin’ was mine the whole time n’ Swindle never really cheated on me.” Lockdown finished up his tale, waiting for Oil Slick to stop banging his helm against the wall of his lab. “Sooo… I guess this was all sort of… my fault?”

Oil Slick paused, slowly turning his helm to glare at Lockdown like he was an idiot. Which Lockdown kind of guessed that he was when he thought of the whole situation that led up to that moment. “ You think? ”

“Hey, I thought I was sterile.” Lockdown shrugged. “Didn’t put a kid in him all the other times.”

“AND YOU NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT, OH I DON’T KNOW, TALKING TO HIM ABOUT IT?!”

“I jus’ sort of jumped to conclusion back then.” Lockdown shrugged. “But it all worked out in the end anyway.”

“Yes.” Oil Slick hissed, rubbing the glass dome. “ After you found out Swindle was sparked and wouldn’t let him explain, driving him away and winding up hiring Ludicrous as a bodyguard who was secretly poisoning him and almost wound up succeeding in killing had you two not crossed paths and took over the job, thinking you could find out who the mysterious sire was and almost ended up killing Swindle on one of your hunts when you could have just left him on your ship for safety and found out you were the mysterious sire the whole time when you could have avoided the whole drama if you had only just talked to him.” The Decepticon narrowed his optics at the hunter. “Honestly Lockdown. This is probably the worst thing you could have ever done. And that’s not including the whole Prowl thing.”

Lockdown cringed. “Hey, he got over it… eventually.”

“He stopped talking to you for ten whole stellar cycles when he found out.”

“He got over it!”

Oil Slick sighed, shaking his helm.

“I only asked the mech to be my partner in business because he had the same skill set as me! I didn’t like him in that sort of way!”

“And yet you failed to mention this to Swindle at first because?”

Lockdown glanced to the side, rubbing his neck. “… I thought he would have been alright with it.”

“Clearly not.” Oil Slick shook his helm, clearly not understanding how the mercenary could be so bright yet so dull at the same time. “I keep telling you that a proper healthy relationship is communication, yet you don’t seem to really keep such important info in your processor. After all these stellar cycles—” Oil Slick continued to rant.

At this point Lockdown tuned him out, flapping his digits, moving them like an extra intake. He had heard this all before from Oil Slick. The scientist was the only mech who figured out his secret infatuation with Swindle after a night with one too many shots of Engex in his systems, somehow winding up being some sort of relationship coach to the hunter after revealing the many, MANY failed attempts to give the merchant the hint of his interests early on. 

“AND!” Lockdown jumped as Oil Slick suddenly appeared in front of him. “You clearly don’t understand the concept of thinking before doing.”

“Oi! I think ‘fore doin’.” Lockdown huffed.

“Oh really? So, you thought about getting a real medical check-up from a real medic instead of just assuming things you think you know about your body for now on, hm?”

“I have no intention of doin’ that.”

“And why not?”

“Not worth it.” Lockdown shrugged, causing Oil Slick to sigh and drag his servo down his face. “Besides, can’t find one who would actually examine me without knowin’ who exactly I am. Most of ‘em jus’ run away whenever they spot me comin’ a mile away.”

Oil Slick gave him a slight look before nodding. “Okay, I guess that makes sense.”

“Besides, I don’t really trust doctors to go pokin’ ‘round my innards.”

Oil Slick only shrugged, moving away to one of his tables covered in assortments of chemicals and beakers. “So, what exactly brings you here? I hope it has nothing to do with…” He glanced over his shoulder, giving the sparkling in Lockdown’s arms a pointed stare.

“Swindle has white rust.”

Oil Slick spun around, staring at Lockdown with wide optics. “White rust? Swindle? How did that happen?”

“Restockin’ unlabeled containers.” Lockdown sighed deeply. “One of his ‘admirers’ sent him a nasty gift stellar cycles ago n’ he forgot ‘bout it being in his storage compartment.”

“Of course.” Oil Slick sighed, turning back to his table. “And I assume you want me to make an antidote?”

“N’ check Scarlet fer any white rust in her systems. Swindle will kill me if he finds out if she has white rust n’ I did nothin’ ‘bout it.”

Oil Slick glanced over his shoulder, looking at Scarlet for a while before nodding. “Very well. Give me a megacycle to whip up something.”

Lockdown’s shoulders relaxed, nodding his helm. “Thanks Slick.”

“Here.” After a couple of megacycles, Oil Slick held out a vial containing a deep red liquid inside. “This should get rid of the white rust from Swindle’s systems. Though I highly recommend that he sees a doctor, a REAL doctor, for anything else serious that might pop up.”

Lockdown grunted, putting the vial away in his subspace. “N’ the kid?”

“Clean bill of health. Though, AGAIN, I recommend you take her to a REAL doctor instead of me. I’m a scientist, not a medical bot.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Lockdown huffed, placing Scarlet in his back hood and turned to leave.

“Tell your mechfriend I said hi.”

Lockdown paused, looking back at Oil Slick. “Mechfriend?”

“Swindle, of course.” Oil Slick had his back turned to the hunter, fiddling with his chemicals. “You two are back together again, aren’t you?”

Lockdown frowned, staying there in silence. Oil Slick seemed to pick up on the silence, turning his helm to look at him.

“Aren’t you?”

Lockdown bobbed his helm side to side, shrugging. “I mean… maybe? We haven’t really talked ‘bout it. I don’t know. I…” He made a motion with his servo before flopping it to his side. “… I messed up big time, yet I still want him.”

“Does he still want you though?”

Lockdown shrugged. “He hasn’t kicked me out yet so… I don’t know. Maybe?” He shook his helm, turning away. “I’ll stick ‘round fer a while longer. If he wants to get back together, then that’s his call, not mine.”

“… Wow. A mature step on your part.”

Lockdown whipped his helm around, glaring at Oil Slick. “Mention a word of this ta anyone n’ yer dead.”

Oil Slick only shrugged, turning back to his experiments as Lockdown left his lab.

Chapter Text

There was an old saying.

Life is full of surprises.

Many could dismiss it, but living as long as he had, Swindle didn’t doubt it. For many stellar cycles he had seen plenty of things and plenty of surprises. Lockdown was sure that he had seen everything and was incapable of being shocked by new things, but Swindle knew better than to just assume that nothing could surprise him anymore.

He should have known this would happen. Having more than one secret base had its pros and cons. Pros in where he could hunker down and hide. Cons? Having so many of them and spending a long time away from them, he often forgets to check the security to make sure it was up to date or make sure that no one else had claimed his bases as their new homes. He had plenty that were sadly taken over by wandering neutrals and pirates.

Slag, even LOCKDOWN often crashed at one of his bases and claimed them as his in the end. Not that he minded too much, the mech didn’t hang around those bases often. Just only when Swindle was in the current area and liked popping in unannounced and left when Swindle was heading off to a new area to gain more profit.

But he should have known. He should have known this base wouldn’t be safe. It had been many stellar cycles since he ever checked on this place, he should have known someone would have stumbled across it.

Swindle kept his back pressed against the wall, hearing someone moving about in the kitchen in the middle of the night. 

He knew it couldn’t have be Lockdown. He was out on a hunt and wouldn’t be back for another six solar cycles and would have commed him when he arrived. Personally, Swindle didn’t care who it was.

It was an intruder. In HIS base. Where HIS sparkling was living in, and he didn’t want some grubby freeloader in his base.

With a quick check of his gun, Swindle jumped out in the open, readying his aim to fire with the element of surprise in his corner.

Only to drop his gun in surprise when he actually got a good look at the intruder.

“BRAWL?!”

Too bad some surprises weren’t all on his side.

“SWINDLE!” Swindle stood frozen, staring at the large mech standing in the kitchen. It had been over billions of stellar cycles since he last laid optics on this mech, but he would recognize him anywhere no matter how much time had passed between them.

“Hey lil’ bro!” The larger mech tossed the half empty cube of Energon he had been drinking over his shoulder, lumbering over to Swindle and pulling the smaller mech into a tight hug. “Good to see you!”

Swindle flinched in pain as the larger mech hugged him a little too tightly, though despite that it was oddly comforting. Same old Brawl. “It’s! Nice! Ack! To see! You too!” Swindle managed to pat his servo on Brawl’s arm, trying hard not to pass out.

Brawl released him from the death hug for a moment, lifting the merchant high up off the ground and gazing at him with a bright shine in his visor that could outshine the biggest smiles. “Slagging Primus I didn’t expect to see you here Swindle! It’s been way too long!” Brawl looked at him up and down. “Still making new modifications to your body huh? Did you get thinner? You look like you’ve lost some weight.” He shifted Swindle in his servos, moving him to sit on one of his large servos and bounced him a bit. “You do feel kind of lighter than the last time we saw each other. Did you replace something or am I just imagining things?”

“Brawl, not that it’s not good to see you again, but what are you doing here?” Swindle took a quick moment to look over the larger mech. It had been a few hundred thousand or so stellar cycles since he last heard of anything about the mech, even longer since they last spoke face to face with each other. Brawl’s body was still basically the same, yet he seemed to have picked up a few new body mods and parts here and there along with a new paint job. He could tell by the new tank tracks in his stabilizers and shoulders and by the length of the tank barrel on his back.

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” Even with a mask over his face, Swindle could tell Brawl was pouting.

“Of course I’m happy to see you!” Swindle smiled easily, slipping into his sales mech smile to hide his nervousness. “You know I’m always glad to see you. More than what I can say about the others. But, uh, just a quick recap.” Swindle glanced around, trying to find any corners or large shadows that were large enough to hide large unhinged bots in them that he could have overlooked when he was coming here. “I, uh, hope you didn’t bring any company with you. I have a very strict rule of—”

“Vortex isn’t here Swindle, relax.”

“That’s what you said the last time we had a run in.” Swindle shot a glare at Brawl, though he lost it when the larger mech set him back down on his peds.

“Well that time was an accident.” Brawl huffed, placing his large servos on his hips. “You can’t blame me ‘bout that.”

“I wasn’t.” Swindle glanced around the room, trying to find any trace or sign of the unhinged helicopter. “It’s just that I’m not letting myself get jumped on by him again.”

“Relax, Swindle. I’m here to get away from Vortex. Fact is, I’m actually on vacation.” Swindle whipped his helm at Brawl in surprise.

“Vacation? You?”

“Yeah. Onslaught’s own orders.” Brawl shrugged. “He said either I go off and cool off, or he’d weld my aft on to the next spacecraft till my anger blows over.”

“Not enough bots to trample on out on the battlefield I take it?” Swindle couldn’t help but be smug. Even after all these stellar cycles, Brawl was still Brawl.

“Hey you know me! I love battle! I love to fight! But when they call for a stand still and no one is allowed to throw punches at each other?!” Brawl punched his servos together, making Swindle flinch. “It’ll drive any mech mad!”

“I see. I see.” Swindle hummed, making himself seem interested in Brawl’s words. Brawl’s processor only had two things stored there that he could focus on. Fights and drinking Engex. If there wasn’t a fight he could join in, he was usually drinking. If there wasn’t Engex around, he was off to do what he was proudly named after. For Onslaught to send him off without fights was like sending Swindle out without any merchandise to sell, and that was a horrifying thought.

“And all the bars in that sector are either closed or broken! How is a mech supposed to get good Energon to relax if there isn’t any?! Where am I supposed to go to get the good stuff?! That’s when it hit me. Swindle knows where the good stuff is, he’s loaded with that kind of stuff in one of his bases! That’s why I came here. Though, uh, I couldn’t really find any Engex when I got here.”

“That’s because there isn’t any here.” Swindle sighed, rubbing his face. “I had all of that stuff moved someplace else. I don’t want Scarlet anywhere near that stuff before she’s even a thousand stellar cycles old. And I don’t want her sire encouraging any of his bad habits around her either.”

“… Scarlet?”

Swindle froze.

“Who’s Scarlet?”

“Uh…” Swindle fidgeted. Primus damn it! Why did he let that slip?! “N-No one. Just a client staying here from the time being.”

“You’re letting a client stay here? I though you didn’t like having anyone over in your bases.” Brawl wasn’t that bright of a mech at times, but he had his moments.

“Weeelllll I uh, I figured letting one client in wouldn’t hurt. Besides, I can always pay them not to talk or anything when they leave.” Swindle shrugged and hoped Brawl would take it.

Brawl glared at him through his visor, crossing his servos over his chest. Even after all these stellar cycles, Swindle kept forgetting how Brawl could easily pick up on his lies. In the past it had been easy to pull a fast one over the tank, but that was long before… he left. And after that, Brawl had wisened up… somewhat.

Swindle stared at Brawl for a good long while, hoping he would drop it. When a solid cycle passed and Brawl hadn’t moved, Swindle sighed in defeat, waving the mech to follow him. “Please try to keep quiet and try not to break anything. I know you’re only going to press if I keep dodging it so I’ll just show you.” He paused a moment before looking back at Brawl with a serious gaze. “This stays between you and me. No one else from your team is allowed to know this. Especially Onslaught and Vortex, okay?”

Brawl scoffed. “Come on, Swindle. As if I’d tell them what you’re going to tell me.”

How long had it been since they last spoke to each other?

Fifty stellar cycles? A hundred? Six thousand? A million? He didn’t really know. Swindle stopped having any contact with him since their last meeting.

It hadn’t been his fault though. How was he supposed to know Vortex had been tailing him? Brawl had made sure to be extra sneaky to meet up with Swindle, he honestly didn’t expect Vortex to follow him. It was the copter’s fault anyway.

Swindle wouldn’t have left the team if Vortex hadn’t scared the merchant away. Yeah, Swindle was always sneaky and too greedy for his own good, but he was the one who managed their income and supplies so that they never starved or ran out of ammo on the battlefield. Plus, he was good company to have back in the old times. Like a little brother that Brawl never had.

Then the whole ‘spare parts’ incident happened and…

Brawl hated himself. Swindle had tried to tell them, DID tell them, that it wasn’t his plan to sell them for parts. Slag, he never even wanted to sell his teammates out, he never even DID sell their parts, someone else did that and put the blame on Swindle. Swindle tried to show them that it wasn’t him, tried to clear his name, tried to get the team to listen to him and show them what really happened.

And what did they do?

They ignored him, blamed him, HURT him to the point that he was more of an outcast to the team that somehow extended to all other Decepticons. It took too long from Brawl to see the truth, and by then the damage had already been too much and too deep. Swindle wasn’t Swindle no more, no matter how hard Brawl tried to get him back to his normal self. Blast Off tried to help when he figured out the truth, though it was only when Onslaught just wanted Swindle’s processor in working order again, but Vortex?

Vortex kept hurting Swindle, even when he found out the whole truth too. He kept undoing all the progress Brawl or Blast Off had managed to make and hurting Swindle more to the point where Brawl had to stick close to the little mech to be sure the crazy copter didn’t do anything to his little brother.

He should have known though. Swindle always pulled a fast one, and even though he wasn’t all there, somewhere deep inside he must have realized that staying wasn’t a good option.

It hurt when Swindle slipped away one night without anyone noticing, booking it off that planet and never looking back. Brawl had never felt so alone when he couldn’t find Swindle anywhere, leaving nothing behind but a small note to Brawl. If there was any blame, it was all on Vortex. He hurt Swindle, he pushed Swindle away from the team and got rid of their best mech for resources and got rid of an important team member.

Brawl counted himself lucky when Swindle got in contact with him after so many stellar cycles of silence. Apparently he heard about how bad his old team got their afts kicked during the last battle and actually got worried for them. Most of them. Some of them. One or two of them. He didn’t care if Onslaught or Vortex kicked it. And he was sort of indifferent about Blast Off.

But it was nice enough that he still cared about Brawl. Brawl was just happy to hear from his little bro again, though he was sad to learn that Swindle never planned on rejoining the team ever again. He had a new business to run and he didn’t intend to ever stick around the very mech who hated his systems. Kind of a smart move actually. Vortex had spent nearly over a megacycle cursing Swindle’s name when he found out that he left, and the last time they ever actually saw each other hadn’t been… good.

He had to pry the crazy copter off Swindle and hold him down for the merchant to escape. Brawl got a few scratches and tears in his armor that needed repairs, but at least Swindle was able to get away. It was after that that Swindle stopped contacting him and Brawl was sure he would never see his little brother ever again after that solar cycle.

But low and behold! Brawl really hadn’t expected to run into Swindle! And out here of all places! He had abandoned this place for quite a while since it was too close to there , so the place was left alone to collect dust. Brawl only knew about this place because despite being owned by Swindle, this place was sort of a penthouse for the team way back then. A place where they could lay low and out of sight of the law till they could spring back into action.

They stopped using the place when Swindle left and all the Energon dried out.

But since Swindle was back, that meant he was either starting to forgive the rest of the team, which seemed very unlikely, or something probably forced him to come here.

He didn’t expect a sparkling to be the reason.

“Oh my…” Brawl’s visor sparkled, staring at the sparkling in Swindle’s arms. “I… is that a?”

Swindle was smiling. Not one of his con greedy business-like smiles. This smile was softer, gentle, warm and happy. Genuinely happy. “Brawl, this is Scarlet. She’s my daughter.”

If he hadn’t already been sitting, Brawl was sure to be toppling over from shock. A daughter. Swindle went and had a kid. Swindle had a kid!

Brawl couldn’t believe his optics. He nearly thought the kid wasn’t his, but she had physical features that said otherwise. Especially when she opened her big old optics and looked right at him. Hard to deny she wasn’t related to Swindle in some way when her optics were cat-like just like his, big and round and full of curiosity as she stared at him.

“You sired a kid?” Brawl asked, leaning closer to get a better view of the tiny being in Swindle’s arms.

“No. Carried.”

“Oh. I guess that makes more sense.” Brawl held out one of his digits, poking at the little servos. Scarlet’s optics were focused on him, following his digit without blinking. “She’s really cute.”

“Why thank you. That’s a nice thing to say.”

“How old is she?”

“Almost a stellar cycle old.” It was hard not to notice the pride in Swindle’s voice. “It’ll be officially a whole stellar cycle since she emerged in less than four solar cycles. Ooo I can’t believe my little spark is growing up so fast!”

“I didn’t take you as a creator type.”

“Oi! I talked about having a sparkling or two before!”

“Yeah. When you were high on Engex.” He could still remember those moments. Seeing Swindle lose his usual business charm and actually showed his true colors. A sad little mech who deeply appreciated being with a team that didn’t act like he was invisible or just used him as a personal punching bag for every single thing that went wrong on a mission and saw them all as brothers. Sometimes it was funny seeing him act differently, sometimes he was very sparkfelt and emotional, but Brawl did recall Swindle telling him a few personal deep secrets once in a while when he was really high. “Didn’t think you’d be serious about it though.”

“Brawl, not everything I say is a lie.” Swindle huffed, pinching between his optics.

“I know. But It was kind of hard to tell what was a lie and what was true with your words back then.” Brawl stared at the tiny sparkling, completely entrapped by the small being. Her little face was cute, deep grey just like Swindle’s with small black markings starting to show around her optics. “… WAIT A NANOKLIK!”

Swindle jumped back, clutching Scarlet close.

“Wait! Wait a moment!” Brawl’s processor spun around and around, looking between Swindle and the small sparkling in his arms. His optics widened behind his visor as it dawned on him. “Oh Slag. Oh Slag! Swindle!”

Swindle covered the small sparkling, gazing at him with fear and worry.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME I BECAME AN UNCLE?!”

“… what?”

“An Uncle!” Brawl lifted his arms up, pointing at himself and the small sparkling. “I’m an uncle now! Oh slag I’m an uncle! Why didn’t I see this earlier?! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! No wait, why didn’t you tell me you were carrying?! I would have been there for you every step of the way! Slagging Primus, I even missed my little niece’s emergence! Frag Swindle why didn’t you tell me this stuff earlier?! I missed out on all bonding moments with her! SLAG! You said that her emergence day is in four solar cycles?! I didn’t even get her a present yet, Swindle!”

Swindle stared at Brawl for a good long moment before his intake split into a wide grin and laughed.

Brawl stopped his ranting, looking at Swindle with a small glare. “What’s so funny?”

Swindle chuckled, looking at Brawl with a smirk and grinning optics. “I’ve missed you Brawl.”

Brawl blinked, surprised by Swindle’s words before chuckling and rubbing his helm. “Missed you too lil’ bro.”

When he had last thought of his old team?

It was probably at least a hundred stellar cycles after Vortex got the jump on him when he was visiting Brawl for a business trade. Fragging copter. The crazed mech landed a few nasty blows on him before he managed to get away. He had wanted to contact Brawl afterwards and let him know that he was okay, but the fear of Vortex listening in kept him away.

He felt bad cutting off all contact with the only member who he had good relations with, but he didn’t want to risk the copter’s wrath any time soon.

Memories of Brawl sometimes popped into his helm now and then after stellar cycles of silence, but they were always forgotten as quickly as they came. Though, he felt like an idiot for not remembering that Brawl and the rest of them knew about this base.

Thankfully from what Brawl told him, none of the others wanted to come back here, so this place was still safe. For now at least.

Swindle liked Brawl, there was no doubt about that. But he couldn’t fully trust him.

As much as Swindle cared about Brawl, the tank wasn’t capable of keeping a secret. He had seen for himself how easy it was for the larger mech to crack and talk without realizing it. Slag, give him a bribe you know he won’t trun down, and he would sing like a canary. Sure he would feel bad about it when he realized what he had done, but that was why Onslaught never told him any important plans or military tactics. It was always either left to Blast Off or Swindle himself.

Blast Off followed Onslaught’s orders down to the T, so there was no way he would spill any secrets. Swindle wasn’t easy to break for any information, not if he wasn’t paid, but that rarely if ever happened, so he always found ways to escape and slip out of the radar whenever he was captured, though that didn’t always mean he left empty handed~.

“Get the digit~! Get the digit~!”

Swindle cracked a small smile at the sight of a big, brute, battle made mech ready to charge in the front lines to stomp some helms into sheet metal laying flat on his front playing with a tiny sparkling and cooing at them as the little femme crawled after the digit with the cutest scowl on her face he had ever seen.

Seeing Brawl act like a doting uncle to his sparkling was a sight to see. One he never thought to expect to see this side of him. Swindle was glad that Brawl was treating his daughter carefully, being as gentle as he could as he played with Scarlet. He wasn’t sure if he would allow the tank near his sparkling at first, but Brawl proved his worries to be for nothing as he handled Scarlet with the utmost gentle care he ever had.

Swindle was surprised to see Brawl acting so carefully around his daughter. Brawl was normally ready to stomp, and crush, and tear limbs apart. Yet here he was playing around with Scarlet and gushing over her like she was the most precious thing in the universe.

Which she was.

“So.” Swindle flinched, feeling a cold hook press against his hip. “Seein’ as ya don’t seem ta be worried that there’s someone playin’ with Scarlet, I take it ya know this bot?”

Swindle sighed softly, turning his helm to frown at Lockdown. “When did you get here?”

“A few cycles ago. No spill. Who is this?”

“You don’t recognize him?” Swindle blinked in surprise.

“Names n’ faces escape me. I don’t have an infinite memory bank like ya do Swin.”

“Well, no. But I was sure you would recognize him since—”

“ YOU! ” Swindle tensed at the shout, letting out a tiny squeak as he was grabbed around the middle and flung back. Luckily he landed on the soft blankets he laid out earlier for Brawl and Scarlet to play on, so he didn’t take any damage and recovered quickly from the shock.

“Brawl, wait!” Swindle jumped to his peds, moving to get between his old teammate and Lockdown. “Wait! Put down your weapon!”

“Put down my weapon?! Are you crazy Swindle?! That fragger is a bounty hunter!” Brawl growled, keeping his gun aimed at Lockdown while holding Scarlet protectively against his chest. “He hunted us down during the war and stole my favorite gun!”

“I stole a lot of bots guns durin’ the war.” Swindle elbowed Lockdown in the chest, shooting him a small glare. “What? It’s true n’ you know it.”

“Look. Brawl. Buddy.” Swindle tried inching closer to Brawl, reaching out to push the gun away before the tank could fire. “Can you please put away the gun and calm down so we can talk about this calmly?”

“I am being calm!” Brawl jerked his gun forward, making Swindle stumble a bit.

“YES! Yes! Of course!” Swindle looked between Brawl and the small sparkling he had in his hold. “Of course you are. But, uh, m-maybe you should put the gun down first? None of the stuff here can withstand a high powered model X-49 blaster gun’s firepower and mostly one of a kind, soooo maybe you can try to take this outside or—?”

“THAT MECH SENT US ALL TO THE STOCKADES!” Brawl roared. “HE’S THE ONE WHO HUNTED US ALL DOWN ON LUNIOS EIGHT AND THREW AS AT THE AUTOBOTS SLAGGING PEDS LIKE CATTLE!”

“Lunios eight? Why does that name sound familiar?”

“It’s where you hunted down Brawl and the rest of the Combaticons when you were hired by someone called Highbolt.” Swindle reminded Lockdown, watching the gears turn in the hunter’s helm.

Lockdown’s optics widened, snapping his digits. “Ha! Yeah, that’s right! I remember that solar cycle now n’… oh slag.”

“Yeah oh slag! I’m gonna make you pay for what you did that solar cycle you slag fragger!”

“Fine, but could ya put down my kid first? You’re makin’ Swindle tense holdin’ her like that.”

“I’m not taking orders from—! … wait… your kid?” Brawl glanced at Scarlet. “No no no, this is Swindle’s kid.”

“Uh, yes.” Swindle pushed the barrel of the gun away with one digit. “She’s my sparkling. And she’s also Lockdown’s sparkling.”

Brawl stared at them for a long while. “… wha?”

Seeing as they weren’t dead yet, Swindle reset his vox, putting on a business smile as he clapped his servos together. “Lockdown, this is Brawl. He’s my old team member and sort of my… brother.” He indicated to Brawl, showing him off like he was introducing an important mech to another much equally important mech. “Brawl, this is Lockdown and… he’s Scarlet’s sire.” He chuckled nervously, looking between the pair for any sign of danger or blood lust.

Brawl stood there for a long moment, staring at Scarlet and looking at Lockdown back and forth. “… YOU FRAGGED MY LITTLE BROTHER?!”

Swindle groaned, slapping his face as his cheeks became hot.

The Combaticons.

It had been a while since he last heard that name.

He would claim that he hadn’t seen any of them since the war… but that would be a lie since he kept seeing Swindle.

Hard to imagine that Swindle had once been part of an infamous team. His time with them had been short, but he had made a large impact when he was still associated with them during the war. The news of his departure spread like wildfire, stirring up many rumors and crazy stories for stellar cycles to make sense for the arms dealer’s sudden desertion of the team.

Lockdown didn’t know the truth until long after their businesses started getting more personal and Swindle slowly opened up to him about bits of his past on a rare night.

He had a few run-ins with the Combaticons before, before and after Swindle left. Most of his interactions with the team were… professional.

“YOU FRAGGED MY BROTHER?!”

“BRAWL! Please Don’t Kill Him!”

Strictly professional.

Wasn’t his fault that bots wanted the team behind bars, though conveniently it was thanks to him that they met Swindle at the Stockades. He didn’t know it at the time, not till he actually met the new member of the team and newly factioned Decepticon making deals and sales with other mechs. News got far about his big entrance and many bots were curious of the newcomer in their faction.

Not Lockdown. He only needed new parts for his ship and heard about Swindle’s talents with getting what you needed and more.

That was the very start of their interactions and businesses from that solar cycle.

“HOW DARE YOU FRAG MY LITTLE BROTHER!”

“Brawl Can You Please Calm Down?!”

He only had a few interactions with Swindle when he was still a Combaticon. Mostly for new weapons and mods, and sometimes a job order from the team’s leader… what was his name again?”

“WHEN ONSLAUGHT HEARS ABOUT THIS YOU’LL WISH YOU NEVER CAME ONLINE!”

“ Please Don’t Bring Onslaught Into This! ”

That’s right. It was Onslaught. He didn’t like most of the Combaticons and the feeling was mutual. Though Swindle was, in some view, nicer to him. If not a little bit of a cheapskate.

“LET ME AT HIM!”

“PLEASE BRAWL! CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT THIS FIRST?!”

“NOT TILL THE FRAGGER IS DEAD AND HE PUTS DOWN MY NIECE!”

He didn’t know how he did it, but in the end he finally managed to calm Brawl down. Somewhat.

Yes he kind of had to bribe him with a couple bottles of Engex and carefully explain to him why he couldn’t kill Lockdown and no he could tear off one of his limbs, but he still managed to convince Brawl not to attack the mercenary. Didn’t stop him from glaring or making rude gestures at him, but at least he wasn’t attacking him.

Luckily though, Brawl was on his best behavior around Scarlet. Acting like a caring doting uncle around her, even if he did sometimes snatch her away from Lockdown.

“Come on~! Come on~! Say it~! Say Uncle Brawl~!”

Scarlet stared at Brawl, sitting on her carrier’s lap as Swindle watched the whole thing with a smile on his face. Today his young sparkling was a whole stellar cycle old now, which meant that it had been a whole stellar cycle since he brought her into the universe.

“Say it~! Say Uncle Brawl~!”

“… pht.”

A chuckle escaped Swindle’s intake, watching Brawl’s face fall with disappointment as Scarlet stuck out her gloosa at him. “Heh. Sorry Brawl. We’ve been trying to get her to say anything for orbital cycles and it hasn’t worked so far.”

“And you’re not worried about it?”

“Oh I am.” One of Swindle’s optics twitched. “Very much so.”

“There ain’t nothin’ wrong with her. Calm down ya idiot.” Lockdown’s voice called from the kitchen, which Swindle threw a small glare at.

“Why did you let him be in charge of making the cake again?” Brawl asked, allowing Scarlet to nibble on his digit.

“Because you would pick a fight with him if I were to make it, and we both know you would only give everyone Energon poisoning.”

“Oh come on! That was only one time! I got better!”

“I’m not letting my sparkling get poisoned.” Swindle said with a deadpan tone.

Brawl grunted, grumbling under his voice a bit before perking up again. “Hey! Since it’s her emergence day, that means she gets to have presents right?”

“Yep! I have all her gifts wrapped up in one of the closets in the hallway.” Swindle beamed, tickling Scarlet’s side. Scarlet vented deeply, kicking her little peds out. Her peds were starting to take a familiar shape of her carrier’s, yet there were little bumps lining around the tips. He counted five bumps on each ped, which no doubt would become spikes when she grew older, just like the small bumps on her shoulders and around her neck and down her back strut.

Thankfully those bumps wouldn’t become a danger till she was around two hundred stellar cycles, so Swindle didn’t need to worry about any harm coming to her yet.

“Well I got the perfect gift for her!” Swindle look at Brawl confused as he stood up and took out a—

“NO!” Swindle screamed, clutching Scarlet close to his chest and causing Lockdown to check on them.

“Wha? No? What do you mean no? It’s a good gift!”

“IT’S A GUN!”

“Yeah!” Brawl held up a large deadly looking weapon. “Every bot who reaches their first stellar cycles gets a gun! It’s tradition Swindle!”

“Not for my baby!” Swindle tried shielding Scarlet away from the weapon. “And that’s for forged bots! Scarlet’s still just a sparkling! She can’t handle a weapon! I forbid it!”

“What?! But you’re an arms dealer!”

“That doesn’t mean I willy nilly give young sparks weapons!”

“It’s a good gun to have!”

“It’s too big for her!”

“It could come in handy down the line!”

“No!”

“Fine! How about this?” Brawl reaching into his subspace, pulling out a different weapon.

“Absolutely not!”

“Bazookas are great to have!”

“She’s too young to have a bazooka! And it’s just as bad as a gun!”

“No it’s not! Bazookas are way better! They blow stuff up and it’s fun to watch!”

“Sparklings don’t need bazookas!”

“Fine! How about a sword?”

“No!”

“Flamethrower?”

“No!”

“Chainsaw?”

“Lockdown already has one for a servo.”

“OI!”

“Rocket?”

“No!”

“Rifle?”

“No!”

“Pistol?”

“No!”

“Grenade?”

“ NO! ”

“A knife?”

“What type of idiot would give a stellar cycle old a knife as a gift?!” Swindle screamed, not noticing Lockdown making a face and scooting away.

“Aw come ON Swindle! She had to have some sort of weapon!”

“She’s a sparkling Brawl!” Swindle indicated to Scarlet, holding her up for Brawl to see her clearly. “She’s too young to handle dangerous weapons! She’s clumsy, weak, and can barely grab anything properly with her tiny servos, much less understand the danger she would be in if you actually gave her a weapon to handle!”

“But. She has to have something .”

“Forget it, mech. Once Swindle’s mind is made up on somethin’, it’s hard ta convince him.” Lockdown emerged from the kitchen holding a cake in his servo and a small cupcake on his hook. “Besides, why does she even need a weapon?”

Brawl shrugged. “It’s a tradition all bots do in the war.”

“But Scarlet’s not in a war Brawl.” Swindle sighed, setting Scarlet down on his lap as Lockdown set both cakes on the table. “And I doubt she’ll be in one with how things are going on your side.”

“But—” Brawl tried to protest, but Swindle shot him a glare, which shut him up.

“Besides, sparkling can’t handle a weapon properly like a full grown mech can. You expect her to be a master of weapons at this age and make a waste of all the ammo?”

“… I… guess not?”

“Exactly! She’s not able to! She won’t be so good at destruction and violence like you are Brawl if she can’t handle weapons correctly! She needs to be older and more well trained than that before she can reach that level. You wouldn’t want to have your niece bad at weapons now would you?”

“Slag no!” Brawl huffed, dropping the weapons and puffing out his chest. “I ain’t gonna let my niece be sloppy with her weapons! She’s gonna be the best of the best! I already have big plans for her when she gets older!”

“ Great goin’ .” Lockdown whispered low enough for only Swindle to hear.

“ At least he’s not giving her a weapon. ” Swindle hissed back. “Anyway, how about we just celebrate Scarlet’s emergence day first, okay?”

“It’ll be her first time tryin’ cake.” Lockdown noted as Swindle pulled the cupcake closer.

“It’s going to be her first time trying anything that isn’t Energon.” Swindle winked at the mercenary as Scarlet stared at the cupcake.

The small cake was an odd new thing to the young sparkling. She could tell that something big was going on as her carrier was all jittery and sire seemed to be bigger today. Even the new bot that was calling themselves Uncle Brawl seemed to be happy about something, yet all she wanted to do was go back to sleep.

“Here Scarlet.” Her carrier touched the new thing, taking a piece off and bringing it close to her. “Try some.”

Scarlet stared at the new thing for a long while before opening her intake and letting carrier pop it in. She kept the piece in her intake for a moment till her gloosa registered the new taste. Her big optics became wide as her pupils became large and rounded.

“EEEEEEEEEEEE!” Scarlet’s scream caught all three mechs off-guard, watched as she lifted herself up and slammed her face down on the cupcake, splattering the pastry on the table and going still.

No one moved a single piston.

“… I think you killed your kid.”

“HEY!”

“ SCARLET! ”

Brawl and Lockdown glared at each other as Swindle started to panic, but the tension broke when Scarlet lifted herself up, smiling happily as she chewed with an intake full of cake with the rest of it covering her face.

“… oh… I guess she liked it.” Swindle sighed in relief. “Guess she’s as big of a sweet tooth as her sire.”

“Oi!” Lockdown huffed, crossing his arms, yet Swindle didn’t miss the way the corner of his intake twitched into a grin briefly.

“What’s a tooth?”

“I’ll explain it to you later, Brawl.” Swindle promised as Scarlet tried reaching for the larger cake, happy that his sparkling was having a good time. His joy vanished however when Scarlet suddenly had a large knife in her servo and proceeded to plunge it into the bigger cake. “… WHAT THE FRAG?! BRAWL DID YOU GIVE HER KNIFE ?!”

“What?! Don’t look at me! I didn’t do nothing!”

Chapter Text

The big one was being loud again.

It didn’t surprise the little femme anymore, but its voice made it very hard to sleep. Scarlet whined and pressed her face against the one who was Carrier, feeling them rub her back in soothing motions that would have put her in a gentle recharge quickly, but the loud one was making it impossible for such an easy task.

She didn’t really know what to think of the loud one, or ‘Uncle Brawl’ as it called itself. The moment she laid optics on it, she knew it wasn’t her Carrier or the zebra-faced Sire. Her Carrier didn’t seem wary of this new thing, yet Scarlet didn’t trust this new odd loud thing. Not right away.

This ‘Uncle Brawl’ was odd. It treated her and Carrier with niceness, yet it barked and growled at the zebra-faced Sire. It would even snatch her away from the zebra-faced Sire whenever Carrier wasn’t looking, which was highly annoying as she would often be napping on them, and being snatched would wake her from pleasant dreaming.

She should be unforgiving of this intruder, biting them till they scampered away like a coward on the moving pictures she would watch with the zebra-faced Sire. But, she couldn’t. Her Carrier liked the loud ‘Uncle Brawl’ unfortunately. Which meant she had to be nice as long as it stayed here.

Which also meant fewer naps for her.

“It’s okay Scarlet.” Carrier made odd noises, which were soothing to her. But not enough to get her to recharge. “Brawl’s just being… Brawl, again.”

Scarlet only whined louder, burying herself against Carrier and wishing the loud one would go away so she could nap.

Swindle sighed heavily as Scarlet pressed her face closer to his neck cables, making little whines that made his spark ache. He knew she was just tired. All she wanted right now was a nap. But thanks to Brawl’s loud yelling, that was a near-impossible task for her to accomplish.

Swindle couldn’t blame her. Brawl’s yelling was loud. Loud enough that his voice could reach one end of the base to the other end. Even after all this time, some things never really changed. Even from long ago, Brawl’s screams were the only thing that kept Swindle awake back when he was still with the team.

With a deep sigh, Swindle headed towards the living room where all the yelling was coming from.

Honestly, couldn’t Brawl get along with Lockdown for one solar cycle? It wasn’t much. Just one solar cycle. That was all he was asking. Or at least long enough for Scarlet to get a proper nap.

“AND ANOTHER THING!” Brawl’s bellow hit Swindle’s face as he peered down from the upper balcony. “YOU CAN’T GO WILLY NILLY EVERYWHERE WITH MY LITTLE BRO! I DON’T CARE IF YOU ARE SCARLET’S SIRE! YOU’RE NO GOOD FOR EITHER OF THEM!”

“That’s less than what I can say ‘bout you.” Lockdown countered, picking at his denta with his hook as Brawl sputtered in shock.

“WHA—?! IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN SOMETHING?!”

“Don’t answer that.” Swindle cut in before Lockdown could respond, alerting both mechs to his presence above them. “And just why are you two arguing at this Primus forsaken hour? Your yelling is keeping Scarlet up.”

“It’s His Fault!” Brawl jabbed a digit at Lockdown.

“You were the one who snuck up on me.” Lockdown batted the digit away, huffing.

“You Punched Me In The Face!”

“Again. You were the one sneakin’.”

Swindle rolled his optics heavily as Brawl started screaming again. He loved the tank like a brother, but sometimes he forgot how temperamental the mech was. It didn’t take much to set him off in a bad mood, and honestly, it was a helmache to deal with.

“Brawl. Brawl. Brawl!”

“WHAT?!”

“Look, buddy, I get that you’re angry right now. But will you kindly shut the frag up? It’s way past Scarlet’s bedtime, and it’s honestly too slagging early in the morning. If you’re going to keep yelling, could you kindly take it somewhere else?” Swindle pleaded, hoping Brawl would have some common sense and let everyone get some decent sleep.

“HE FRAGGING PUNCHED ME!” Brawl pointed at Lockdown again, who was trying to sneak away at this point. “THE FRAGGER FRAGGING CLOCKED ME IN THE FACE FOR NO REASON!”

“Ya snuck up on me.”

“I’M GOING TO PULL YOUR HELM OUT THROUGH YOUR EXHAUST PORT!” 

“Brawl—”

“SHA DA FAG AP!” A new little voice shouted, startling everyone. Swindle gazed at Scarlet, finding the young femme glaring at everyone. “Sha ap! Sha ap! Wan eep! Sha ap!”

Everyone stared at the young femmling as she continued to yell at them to shut up.

“… ‘bout time she started talkin’.” Lockdown mused, watching as a wide grin split across Swindle’s face.”

“Shut up.” Brawl grumbled, feeling embarrassed that his niece had to yell at him to be quiet.

“SHA AP!”

Chapter Text

There was an enemy in front of her.

It was big. Black. And it smelled funny

Scarlet kept her sight on this new enemy, keeping it in her sight so it wouldn’t sneak up on her.

Did it think it was so smart trying to play innocent? Ha!

Once it gets close enough, she will show it just how much of a threat she really-DIGITS!

Brawl snorted as Scarlet crouched down on her belly and watched as he wiggled his digits across the blanket, her optics growing wide. Just like her carrier when he got excited about something. “Get it~ Get the digits Scarlet~” He moved his digits closer to the sparkling, trying and failing to cover his laughter as Scarlet started batting his servo.

“Ooo~ You’re so fierce! Such a firey little femme.” Brawl chuckled as Scarlet kept ‘attacking’ his servo. When she threw her whole body on top of the servo and tried to bite it, Brawl couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. “You’re a real firecracker Scarlet!” He scooped up the small bitlet, cooing at her as he brought her close to his face. Scarlet blinked at him for a moment before frowning deeply, causing Brawl to chuckle. “Now that’s a face I’m familiar with.”

“What face?” Swindle looked up from the datapad he was working with. It didn’t surprise Brawl to see Swindle still doing business, even with a kid to care for. Swindle was all about business, now and way back then too. Brawl couldn’t recall a deca-cycle that Swindle wasn’t up to some sort of scruple gaining scheme or running a business deal with some sap.

“The sort of face you make when one of your high marketing profits gets busted.” Brawl held Scarlet up for her carrier to see her frowny face. “You know. The couple of schemes Onslaught made you stop doing when he found out about them.” Swindle frowned at the mention of his failed schemes, mirroring his young daughter’s face, which Brawl couldn’t help but take delight in. “Yeah! That face!” The tank chuckled, setting his niece on his lap. “She’s like a mini you! Only she gets her looks from her ugly sire.”

Pain bloomed in the back of Brawl’s helm. He let out a surprised yelp, rubbing the sore spot, and glared at Lockdown as he passed by. “Why do ya like this fragger again?”

“Oh? Plenty of reasons.” Swindle shrugged with an easy smile on his face. “Most of them with benefits, good looks.” A glint appeared in his optics. “And pretty great in a berth too~”

A strangled sound escaped Lockdown. Brawl gasped and covered Scarlet’s small helm. “Swindle!” The merchant threw back his helm and laughed, enjoying the reactions he got out of the two mechs. His laughter cut off when the datapad let out a small chime. Looking at it, his smile slowly morphed into a deep frown, glaring at the device in his servos that shook slightly. “Un-fragging-believable.” He muttered crossly, tapping something on the device before storing it away and getting up.

“Swin? What’s the matter?”

Swindle stopped, looking at Lockdown for a bit before sighing and rubbing his face. “Remember IronHook?”

A flash of rage crossed Lockdown’s face. “… humph. I might. What’s this gotta do with anythin’?”

“You have connections with IronHook?” Brawl asked, looking at Swindle in surprise. He knew Swindle was crafty with his words and great at making business deals with nearly every dangerous mech there was. And IronHook was very infamous in this region of space. And the rumors surrounding him weren’t something to take lightly.

“Unfortunately.” Swindle grumbled. “Not a pleasant customer to deal with, but at least he’s smart enough to pay full price for every deal.”

“Why do ya even do business with him?” Lockdown asked, crossing his arms over his chest with a noted growl in his voice.

“Hey, it wasn’t intentional!” Swindle put his servos up. “He and I had the unfortunate coincidence to cross paths! I never intended to do business with him! Honest! He just… happened to hear about a certain product that I happened to in my possession and he wanted it. Badly.”

“What sort of product?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Swindle shrugged. “It was just something I came across on my scavenging era. Very clunky looking with a lot of wires and circuity, but it looked important.”

“Important?”

“Important enough that it needed a heavily guarded ship for transport. When I happened across it, the ship was a mess and most of the crew were in pieces, but I remember that the vault that thing was sorted in was completely intact. I was hoping for some sort of valuables or dangerous wares to sell, but all I found was that thing. A complete ripoff if anything.”

“But… you still took it?”

“That I did Brawl! I wasn’t going to walk away empty-handed, so I took it and a few spare parts that happened to be just laying around.” Swindle’s grin quickly dropped. “Unfortunately, it seemed that thing was more important than I thought. A few orbital cycles later, I got jumped on by IronHook and his pirate lackeys, demanding that I hand over the thing to them or have my spark ripped out. It was obvious what I chose right then and there.”

“So why didn’t ya leave?”

“I tried! Believe me. But, uh, I might have been a little desperate back then to ensure that I wasn’t on the mech’s bad side for any future encounters.”

“Ya bargained, didn’t ya?”

“One of my best talents!” Swindle flashed a grin and finger guns at Lockdown. “Anyway, he… became sort of a semi-regular customer after that. Doesn’t call for deals too often and I hardly hear about him. The only time he needs me is when he needs something bad and I’m the only bot left that could have it.” He looked to the side and muttered. “Something I wish I didn’t at times like those.”

“Yer not thinkin’ of doin’ business with him now are ya?” Lockdown narrowed his optics at Swindle.

“I have to.” Swindle shrugged. “If I don’t, then I got an angry pirate on my tailpipe. And believe me, that’s the last thing I want right now.” His optics landed on Scarlet. “Especially right now.”

The implication didn’t go over Brawl’s helm. Not this time. IronHook was a dangerous mech who kept his word to all his threats. More than once Onslaught had to keep Vortex in check whenever the mech’s ship was spotted around the area, wanting nothing to deal with the infamous pirate at all costs.

“… alright. When do we leave?”

“The sooner the… we?” Swindle looked at Lockdown in surprise. “What do you mean, ‘we’?”

“Exactly as it suns like. I ain’t lettin’ ya go see that fragger on yer own.” Lockdown huffed. “That mech’s got a nasty record for bein’ hot-tempered all the time. I ain’t letting you end up being some sort of target practice for ‘im.”

“What?! No!” Swindle raced over to the hunter, grabbing his hook and shaking his helm. “NononononoNO! Bad idea! Very, VERY bad idea Lockdown! He’s HATES you! If he even hears your name, let alone an implication of you, you’ll be blown to smithereens! I can’t have that!”

“N’ you happened ta have plenty of clients that he hates already. One mention of them n’ yer as good as dead too. N’ we both know we don’t want that now that we got a kid here.”

“That’s not the point! I’m in a grey area! You’re target number one! Who do you think they’re going to shoot at first, huh?! Just stay here with Scarlet.”

“Stay here?! Isn’t that what I should be sayin’?!”

“I can’t stay! If I don’t go then I’ll be in real trouble! He’s not a mech you want to mess around with you know!”

“Well then don’t go!”

“I can’t!”

“Fine! I’ll come with ya then!”

“WHAT?! NO!”

“WHY THE FRAG NOT?!” 

“I CAN’T BRING YOU WITH ME! YOU’LL END UP DEAD! BESIDES, SOMEONE HAS TO WATCH SCARLET!”

“WHY NOT TAKE HER WITH YA?!”

“ARE YOU INSANE?! BRING A SPARKLING TO A BUNCH OF DRUNK, TRIGGER-HAPPY, FILTHY PIRATES?! ARE YOU INSANE?!!”

“FINE IF YER SO WORRIED ‘BOUT HER THEN STAY HERE!”

“I CAN’T! THAT’LL ALSO PUT HER IN DANGER! JUST STAY HERE WITH HER!”

“WHAT?! WHY?!”

“BECAUSE I TRUST YOU!”

Lockdown’s optics flew wide as Swindle flinched back and covered his intake. A deep red blush crept along the merchant’s face, mirroring Lockdown’s surprised look in his optics.

“… uhhhhg!” Scarlet broke the silence, throwing her arms up in the air and toppling backward on top of her uncle’s lap. “‘M too ‘ute fa dis dwama!” She huffed, earning a few light-hearted scoffs and chuckles from the elder bots in the room.

“Look, Lock, buddy.” Swindle looked right at Lockdown, optics filled to the brim with seriousness. “It’s not that I don’t know of the danger I’m taking right here. It’s the danger of not taking it that has me more worried. I’ve done this plenty of times before, I know my way around IronHook. Having you tag along will only increase a more likely output that neither of us want. So just… stay with Scarlet, okay? Give me some peace of mind that she’s at least safe in capable servos.”

“What about my servos?” Brawl cut in before Lockdown could reply. “What am I just cannon fodder here?!” He picked up the tiny sparkling, holding her up next to his helm. “I’m capable of watching a sparkling too you know! Especially my own niece!”

“No offense Brawl. But Lockdown and I—”

“What? You think I’m not capable?” Brawl stood up, towering over the pair.

“It’s not that!” Swindle shook his servos. “We just have more experience in raising a sparkling! It’s a lot harder than it looks you know.”

“No. Trying to scrub the floor with just a small brush is harder than it looks.”

“That doesn’t—”

“I’ll watch Scarlet!” Brawl proudly proclaimed, hitting his chest with his free servo. “I’m the most capable bot here in the room anyway! And I should have a turn too!”

“Brawl—”

“Nope! It’s decided!”

“Nothing’s Been Decided!”

“I’m gonna watch her!”

“You Can’t Even Watch Over a Can Of Paint!”

“I’m gonna watch over my little niece~!”

“Brawl! Nothing’s Been Decided! You’re Not Watching Over My Daughter!”

“I can’t believe he actually did that.”

Swindle laid splayed out on the passenger chair, face buried beneath his servos. “I can’t believe he did that.” He moaned in disbelief.

“Well look at the bright side.” Lockdown sat next to him, piloting his ship in surprising calmness. “Now we got someone watchin’ Scarlet.”

“You know you still can’t come with me.” Swindle pointed out as he dragged his servos down his face. “They shoot the moment your ship is in detecting range.”

“I know.” Lockdown leaned back, letting out a small growl. “Doesn’t mean I can’t follow ya halfway there.” He looked towards Swindle. “Plus yer gonna need someone to pick ya up if thin’s turn fer the worst in there.”

The corner of Swindle’s intake twitched, forming into a small smirk that lasted for a few nanokliks before falling with a sigh. “I still can’t believe Brawl did that though.” He shook his helm, rubbing his forehead with a heavy sigh. “Shoving us out and locking the door? Just like that?! How desperate is he to do something like that?!”

“Well, it’s better this way. For one, if I did remain behind, there was more than a likely chance of thin’s goin’ wrong. Not to mention that he n’ I don’t get along. At. All.” Swindle opened his intake to protest, thought about it, then clicked his intake shut. “Plus we both know Brawl’s been pretty good with Scarlet so far. He can handle her fer a while.”

“A while, yes. But for a couple of solar cycles?”

The pair stared at each other for a while.

“… I can trust him not to kill her. But we better head back quickly when business is done.” Swindle resolved. “It’s been stellar cycles but I can never forget how much trouble Brawl can get into on his own.”

“Oh please. What’s the worst that mech can do watchin’ over our kid?”

Furniture torn and toppled over. Green-looking slime dripping from the loft onto the floor. Fire burning on the wall. Chandelier busted and broken inside the fire pit. The stairway rails twisted and out of shape. More fire. A large hole in the wall that wasn’t there before. T.V. smashed. Decor destroyed. MORE FIRE.

… all in all the living room still looked okay.

At least Scarlet’s play area was left untouched.

Said sparkling was playing with one of her toys, completely unaware of the damage around her. 

Was that a good thing? Brawl wasn’t sure. At least she wasn’t crying. It took him megacycles to get her to calm down.

Apparently, Scarlet didn’t like to be away from her creators for a long time. Usually, she was calm and quiet, but she started screaming her helm off when a solar cycle passed without seeing either of her creators. He was so sure things were going to be easy, but that came crashing down when she started crying her little spark out for her carrier. Brawl had tried everything to keep her calm, but it was much harder than he realized.

His first option was to give her some Engex, which always got him to calm down in the past, but he failed to realize that Swindle never stocked up on Engex in this place with a sparkling and a heavy drinking hunter around. He didn’t recall this until he spent nearly half the solar cycle looking before he finally remembered. And after all that, he already made a mess of the kitchen.

Half of the supplies were ruined due to his fruitless searching, but at least Scarlet had stopped screaming when he gave her some Energon. But that was only the start of his problems.

The next solar cycle, Scarlet was back to brawling her little optics out first thing in the morning. And no matter how much Energon he tried to give her, the little femmling would smack it out of his servos and cry for her carrier. Her crying was starting to get on his nerves, so he grabbed some tape and slapped it over Scarlet’s intake.

That worked well… for about twenty cycles.

He only took his optics off her for a nanoklik. A NANOKLIK! And when he turned around she. Was. GONE.

So he spent the whole solar cycle tearing up half of the place upside down and going through all the small places she could get into before finally finding her hiding under Swindle’s favorite berth. And that took a few cycles to get her out from under there.

The next solar cycle Brawl managed to keep things calm… somewhat. 

Scarlet was in a pretty bad mood most of the time, throwing her toys and pouting in the corner. Not even her favorite game of ‘Get the Digits’ cheered her up. Nap time was relatively easy to handle and Scarlet had no problems recharging. It was only after Brawl came to check on her that he found her missing again. Another megacycle searching and he found her… and Scarlet found the controls to the security system.

Needless to say, more damage had been done and Brawl sported more scorch marks than he ever gained on the battlefield trying to get to his niece.

On solar cycle on number four… actually, he really didn’t want to think about it.

Five and six he spent megacycles trying to get her down from the vents she managed to crawl into. (Which was perplexing since all the vents were high up out of reach, even with Brawl standing at full height, he wasn’t able to reach it so how in Primus’s name did a small stellar cycle old get up there?!!)

Solar cycle seven was bath day, which turned into giving the whole washroom and everything else a bath but the femmling. And number eight was a half attempted of the solar cycle before, but with just the same results.

And yesterday saw to it how fussy his little niece could get without a proper nap. Brawl was just about ready to lose it, but the thankful timing of a call from Swindle stopped him from doing anything dumb.

The pair were almost back, which meant Brawl wouldn’t need to look over his niece soon! He wasn’t sure how he was going to explain the mess, but that was sure to be a minor thing.

“Man, I can’t wait for Swindle to get here.” Brawl sagged into the couch, or what little remained of it. Swindle was probably going to give him an audible full when he saw the mess, but Brawl was too tired to care. As soon as Swindle stepped through the door, Brawl was handing the femmling right over to him, no questions asked.

He thought sparkling-sitting was supposed to be easy. He had seen Swindle handling his own kid like it was nothing, he should have been able to do the same thing! Maybe he should just stick to guns and weapons from now on.

“You’re a lot of trouble for a sparkling.” Brawl looked down at his niece, watching her hammer one block down on her toys. “How in Primus’s name does he even manage to take care of you? You were such a calm little sparkling when Swindle held you!” At the mention of her carrier’s name, Scarlet turned her helm, looking at Brawl expectantly.

“Nope. Sorry, Scarlet. Your carrier ain’t here yet.” A displeased scowl crossed Scarlet’s face, throwing her toy right at Brawl’s visor. In a fit of anger, Brawl took out his favorite gun and shot it at the offending block, blasting it to smithereens.

“… oooooOOOOOOOOOoooooooo.” Scarlet eyed the gun in wonder, making grabbing motions at it and catching Brawl’s attention.

“… Heh. You like this?” He leaned forwards, holding the gun out for Scarlet to get a good look at. “Pretty ain’t it? It’s my favorite gun. Take it with me for every battle and took out plenty of Autobots back in the day.”

Scarlet ogled the large device, looking it over with clear interest, and tried to make a grab at it.

“Heh! You’re definitely Swindle’s kid alright! Already trying to make a grab at the nearest weapon. Hey, did you know that your carrier modded this for me? Yeah, he made a few upgrades and stuff so I could hit targets better. It even makes big explosions too! Best thing ever to happen!”

“‘Un! ‘Un!” Scarlet was reaching with both of her servos, looking at her uncle intently.

Brawl knew Swindle didn’t want his daughter holding any sort of weapon. The arms dealer had made it very clear to him several times that Scarlet was not allowed to be handed any sort of dangerous or life-threatening object until she was at least over two thousand stellar cycles old… but that was too long in his option.

He should say no… buuuut.

Scarlet gazed at him with her big optics, putting on a deep pouting face that was hard to resist.

“… OKAY OKAY! Fine! You can hold it.” He set the gun carefully down next to Scarlet, watching as his niece squealed with delight while running her servos all over it. “Just don’t tell your carrier okay? What he doesn’t know won’t hurt—”

“IS MY BABY HOLDING A GUN?!!!!!” Brawl jumped at the scream, whipping his helm around.

Swindle and Lockdown stood at the doorway, gazing at the pair in stunned horror at the destruction. Swindle looked ready to have a spark-attack, looking between ready to scream or faint at any given moment while Lockdown surveyed the damage all around before his optics landed back on Brawl.

“… uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiIIIII can explain?”

“BRAWL!” Everyone jumped at Swindle’s scream. “WHY IS THERE A GUN IN MY BABY’S SERVOS?!”

“Oh relax, Swindle! It’s on safe mode!” Brawl huffed just as Scarlet found the trigger and yanked it. The blast shot out and hit the only remaining wall that hadn’t been damaged, blasting a large hole through it to the other side.

Scarlet let out a gleeful little cheer, clapping her servos at the destruction while the three mechs stared in horror. “… uh… heh heh… oops?”